#TBF26 Q&A: Making the arts accessible to all

Last year’s edition of the Edinburgh International Festival welcomed more than 111,000 guests from 91 countries, marking the event’s fullest theatres and concert halls in over a decade.

The 2026 programme has just been launched for the performing arts festival, which will run between August 7-30 in the Scottish capital. Festival events take place across a range of venues in Edinburgh, including Festival Theatre, King’s Theatre (which is set to reopen in the summer following a renovation), The Studio, The Lyceum, Usher Hall and more.

At the forefront of the festival’s ticketing strategy is Leon Gray, the head of ticketing and audience experience. Having joined the organisation in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, he played a key role in the event’s ticketing/CRM system migration to its current provider, Spektrix. 

Ahead of TheTicketingBusiness Forum 2026, which will run between April 27-29 in Manchester, we caught up with Gray, to discuss the key elements of hosting a long-running, multi-venue festival.

TheTicketingBusiness: What are you currently working on and what are your aims for 2026?

Leon Gray: “As I write, we have just launched the programme for 2026 and are about to start priority booking for our members, before our public on-sale on Thursday, March 26.

“These are the busiest sales days of the year – our Friend on-sale day (roughly 1,700 members) and public on-sale days usually generate up to 30% of our total ticket revenue for the year. One of my key objectives for 2026 is to improve sales and attendance forecasting, optimise our pricing strategy, and maximise revenue, attendance and affordability outcomes across the 2026 Festival cycle.

“To this end, we are working closely with pricing partner, DynamO, to help refine our strategy over the course of this Festival’s sales cycle, with the overall aim to boost ticket revenue while making the Festival more accessible to a wider audience.

“I’m also very excited to be working on an IT transformation programme for Edinburgh International Festival this year, particularly focussed on how the different teams use information management systems to collaborate and work more effectively, using the experience I gained in my previous role as head of business transformation at Aberdeen Performing Arts.”

TTB: What are some of the challenges your team face?

LG: “I think as a sector one of our biggest challenges is making the arts accessible to all – removing physical, sensory and financial barriers to ensure as many people as possible can experience arts.

“We’re striving to make Edinburgh the most affordable of the world’s great arts festivals, providing more than 50,000 tickets for £30 or under, and offering £10 “Give it a Go” tickets across all our performances.

“We’re also offering thousands of free tickets for eight to 18-year-olds through our Young Musicians Pass initiative and partnering with Tickets for Good to provide tickets for NHS staff, charity workers and low-income benefit recipients. Following the success of the Festival’s first Dementia-Friendly concert in 2025, this year two concerts will offer performances designed for people with dementia, alongside their caregivers, family and friends. 

“Continuing the Festival’s commitment to accessibility, the wider programme also features 43 accessible performances, including the highest number of captioned performances to date, at 21. The updated free Access Pass continues to provide a tailored Festival experience for anybody needing additional support, by enabling members to share their access information in more detail. I’m also really proud of the Access Panel, an advisory board of people with lived experience of disability that our Access Manager has set up to help us.”

TTB: What is the most exciting development in the industry for you right now?

LG: “I’m following the renewed interest in moving away from the monolith model of ticketing/CRM and building a digital ecosystem based on a best-in-breed tech stack of integrated systems.

“Obviously it would be remiss of me to say anything about AI – and I guess I’m waiting to see if and how AI can redefine how tickets are sold, and whether ticketing suppliers will surface the data in a way that will make AI ticket purchasing a possibility, and what ethical and security concerns this will inevitably raise. 

“Finally, I’m interested in the next generation of ticketing folk. It’s worth noting that a noticeable proportion of young candidates I have interviewed for recent roles have spoken about arts engagement projects either that they have participated in or volunteered/worked on, and how valuable they have been – shaping academic choices and future career aspirations. Arts and culture is increasingly being flagged as a route to social connection.”

Explore the future of ticketing with Leon Gray and hundreds of other industry leaders at #TBF26 at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, from April 27-29. BOOK TODAY.