Classical music and opera in Australia both saw significant growth in revenue, report shows.

Live Performance Australia has released its Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey for 2016, revealing last year’s complex and sometimes surprising patterns of growth and decline within Australia’s live performance sector.

“In 2016, 18.78 million tickets were issued to live performance events, generating total ticket sales revenue of $1.43 billion. That’s more than the combined attendances at AFL, NRL, Soccer, Super Rugby, Cricket and NBL in 2016,” said LPA’s Chief Executive Evelyn Richardson.

“In comparison to 2015, ticket sales revenue increased slightly by 1.2% and in attendance by 0.8%, showing that Australia’s live performance industry has remained stable. Conversely, the different genre categories experienced varying shifts in growth and decline. This trend is consistent with previous years and is primarily due to the impact of major tours or events, particularly international tours, in the market in any given year.”

Consistent with previous years, New South Wales generated the highest share of live performance revenue (37%) and attendance (32%), with Victoria the second largest, commanding 31% of revenue and 29% of attendance.

Conversely, Queensland, the ACT and the Northern Territory all saw declines in live performance revenue and attendance, while...