Box office smashes ticket record for best month ever

The Apex has smashed box office records by selling the most tickets ever in a month since the it opened in 2010.

In October, the Bury St Edmunds venue sold 13,087 tickets worth £330,889.34.

This makes October 2024, the best month on record for ticket sales and box office income beating pre-pandemic levels and the previous best month which was in March 2019 and 12,692 tickets.

This follows a record year of sales last year when 113,356 tickets were sold from April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024 – again its best performance since it opened in 2010.

Not only is The Apex supporting the arts and culture but also helping community groups locally provide essential services for residents.

The Apex, which is run by West Suffolk Council, is continuing to go from strength to strength as an established community hub serving as a meeting place for a range of groups including the Bereavement Café and St Edmundsbaby, as well as a gallery space for West Suffolk College and the Bury St Edmunds Photographic Society to name a few.

The concert hall is regularly hired by local organisations which have included the University of the Third Age – U3A, Royal British Legion, Bury Bach Choir, Bury Friendly Orchestra, RAF Honington Band, Brandon School of Dance, the Newmarket School of Dance, Baby Ballet, Fat Cat Comedy Club and the Voice Squad.

Yoga sessions, painting and harmonica workshops are held in the studios, while the venue is also used for corporate events by a host of local businesses as well as the West Suffolk Business Awards.

More than 75,000 of the tickets sold between 2023 and 2024 were bought by people from outside of West Suffolk.

The figures demonstrate the venue’s role in continuing to attract visitors to the area, contributing to tourism spend and helping deliver the council’s strategic priority for sustainable growth and thriving communities.

As well as selling a record number of tickets in the year, it also outperformed other venues throughout the UK, achieving above the national average in terms of the per cent of tickets sold for its shows.

This year the Apex is continuing to grow its audience – ticket data shows that 10,674 new customers booked tickets for events at The Apex in the past year.

The Apex’s artistic programme offers a broad range of genres from rock and pop, through to classical, comedy, jazz, blues, world music, country and western, family shows, as well as intimate evening events with the stars of stage and screen. 

Ian Shipp, cabinet member for Leisure and Culture at West Suffolk Council, said: “I am absolutely delighted to see that The Apex is going from strength to strength with a record month in October smashing all previous sales, including pre-pandemic.

“This also follows a record breaking year of delivering arts and culture for the people of West Suffolk and beyond.

“This success is helping support the sustainable growth of our local economy and thriving communities.

“The Apex and other West Suffolk Council-run venues support the arts, help our local communities and groups as well as bringing visitors to the district helping showcase our area.

“It is undoubtedly contributing tourism spend to businesses including the hospitality sector.

“We are proud to invest in arts, culture and leisure as part of our work to help our communities thrive.

“Whether it’s through grants to others or at our own facilities like The Apex, it’s about providing a mix of activities that residents across West Suffolk can access and enjoy for the benefit of their health and wellbeing.

“That is why it is also fantastic that so many community groups are making use of the building as a meeting place, for workshops, their own events and as a gallery space for artists of all ages.”

You can find out more about what’s on at The Apex website.