Fringe: Performers flocked to Edinburgh for month of shows. Pic: © SWNS
Ticket sales at the Edinburgh fringe are down slightly on last year.
A total of 2695 shows were staged in 279 venues across the city during the month-long arts festival.
More than 1.8m tickets had been sold by Monday afternoon, with many performances still to take place.
Organisers said this was around 1% less than the overall number of tickets estimated to have been sold by the same point last year.
Kath Mainland, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said it was in "fantastic health", with 1,857,202 tickets sold.
She said: "Over the past 25 days, audiences from Edinburgh, Scotland, the rest of the UK and around the world have been inspired and entertained by world-class performers, writers and artists in the largest celebration of art and culture in the world.
"I'm delighted to say that the Fringe is in fantastic health, with over 1.8m tickets issued and many thousands of audiences attending over 814 free events across the city.
"The Fringe has shown its resilience in responding so positively to the unique challenges of 2012. The loyal and enthusiastic audience has once again been treated to the most amazing cultural experience and has been both entertained and challenged again and again by a programme of spectacular work across all art forms and from all around the world. "
An estimated 22,457 performers took to the stage during this year's Fringe, compared to 21,192 in 2011 when 1,877,119 tickets were sold.
