Here at Wiltshire Creative, we have been looking back on a sensational 2024 and reflecting on the theatre, music, comedy and community projects from the last 12 months.

Having sold 110,00 tickets to 337 performances across Salisbury Playhouse, Salisbury Arts Centre and Salisbury International Arts Festival (including 7 in-house productions made right here in Salisbury), we thought we'd share some of our highlights and key stats from the year.

After saying goodbye to Dick Whittington (our most successful pantomime ever!), we then welcomed Chris Chibnall (of Broadchurch, Doctor Who and The Worst Wedding Ever fame), with the world premiere of his play One Last Push. This was followed by Alan Ayckbourn’s classic A Chorus of Disapproval. Accessibility is at the heart of all our productions, with 20 accessible performances in 2024 and many more planned for 2025.

In May, Salisbury welcomed a new giant, Patch, who paraded through the city with his sidekick, Penguin. 14,000 people enjoyed the City Encounters spectacular, kicking off Salisbury International Arts Festival, which saw a further 6,446 people enjoy the world class music, dance, comedy and more over the two-week festival.

The Autumn season saw co-productions Stones in His Pockets and Play On!, along with Original Theatre’s Birdsong. Audiences loved all three, with 94% of survey respondents rating all of this year’s productions 4 or 5 stars. More people than ever are following us and sharing their love of Salisbury-made theatre on social media, with 1,839 new followers this year.

Our Take Part team provided nearly 200 free community events, enriching the lives of people from all backgrounds and of all ages by increasing access to high quality art experiences. 65 reduced and bursary places were provided for young people to access our youth theatre.

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has supported Wiltshire Creative this year. 2,100 of you have added a donation when purchasing tickets and many more have donated through our Christmas Appeal and by being a Supporter, not to mention the support for our café, bar and ice cream sales, all 20,467 of them!

We can’t wait to welcome you back for an entertainment-filled 2025!