Record-breaking first day for Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
23 JUNE 2009

Record-breaking first day for Festival

The NZ International Film Festival’s first day of advance sales in Wellington has exceeded all previous records.

Tickets went on sale first thing this morning (Tuesday) and by 4pm had exceeded 5,000 for counter, phone and internet bookings through Ticketek.
Festival Director Bill Gosden puts the large opening day sales down to the strength and diversity of the programme.

“We anticipated large sales for headlining titles such as Bright Star but are pleasantly surprised by the sales across the board. The first day of advance sales well exceeds the previous record set in 2004, the year of Fahrenheit 9/11.” says Director Bill Gosden.

Wellington Festival Manager Robyn Harper is excited at the prospect of a strong attendance at the Festival. “This is a great boost to our confidence in a challenging economic environment. We continue to encourage people to delay their travel plans this winter – head to the Festival instead!”

At 5pm today tickets were already 2,000 ahead of the best ticket sales ever recorded for the event in Wellington. Tickets went on sale at 8.30am this morning and by 10.30am over 3,500 tickets had already been sold.

The Festival kicks off in Wellington on the 17 July with opening film Bright Star and runs until 2 August with another Cannes highlight Broken Embraces as the official closing night film. Controversial Cannes title Antichrist was recently announced as a late confirmation.

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