A surge in ticket sales at the biggest fringe venues and preliminary returns from the international festival have underlined a sales success for Edinburgh’s festival season in a recession-busting month.

A survey of venues by The Times found sales up by a fifth, with Fringe organisers expected to confirm tomorrow an overall growth of up to 20 per cent compared with 2007, when a record 1.7 million tickets were sold.

With a week of the Edinburgh International Festival remaining, theatre sales are already up 39 per cent on last year, with other art forms keeping pace with previous years’ figures.

Some of the biggest Fringe venues have enjoyed a bumper season. A spokesman for the Underbelly, which put on 120 shows at four different locations, said estimated ticket sales were in line with the rising trend.

Success was based, he said, on the large number of local buyers who had chosen to holiday at home this year. “We are really thrilled about how things have gone,” the spokesman said.

“There has been so much good feeling, so much good will and relatively good weather. It is good to see the Fringe back in force. There is a general feeling that the Fringe is good this year, with a standard and variety that is better than in previous years.

“There is also elements of people staying at home for their holidays and there have been a lot more foreign visitors taking advantage of the weak pound.”

The Assembly Rooms reported sales up about 20per cent, while the Gilded Balloon said they were up 30 per cent on last year.

This year’s Fringe, which began on July 31 and finishes today, included 34,265 performances of 2,098 shows in 265 venues. This is despite recent suggestions by Michael Russell, the Culture Minister, that it had become “unmanageable” and too expensive for some promoters. Neil MacKinnon, the Fringe society’s head of press, said: “We had a very good month and we are cautiously optimistic that when we collate our figures it will be one of the best – if not the best.”

Meanwhile, Tim Key, who describes himself as a “poet, performer and savant”, has won the £8,000 Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show.

Nica Burns, producer of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, said: “Tim Key is a one-off, an adorably diffident performance poet and stand-up. His charming show is full of surprises.”

Key, 32, from Cambridge, said of his victory: “It means quite a lot. I guess it reflects that my show was all right this year.”

Jonny Sweet, who is soon to appear as the young David Cameron in a television drama-documentary, won best newcomer.

The awards were presented after the judges scrutinised 400 different acts at this year’s Fringe, whose programme listed 780 comedy performers.

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