APA Draws Over 400,000 Audience Members Over 12 Months
International programming included artists and companies making their debut in the north-east.
We’ve been watching what Aberdeen Performing Arts has been up to over the past year, and the figures are worth paying attention to. Nearly 800 performances reached more than 400,000 people between April 2024 and March 2025, marking a 14% jump in audiences from the year before.
What caught our eye, though, is the International Season they launched. They’ve been bringing in companies and artists who’ve never performed in Aberdeen before, presenting work that doesn’t usually travel this far north. For a city that can sometimes feel overlooked in Scotland’s cultural landscape, that feels like a significant shift in ambition and programming.
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Workshop activity
Beyond the main programme, they ran workshops for almost 14,000 people, with 10,000 of those participants being young people. That’s a significant chunk of activity happening outside the traditional performance model, suggesting a focus on making rather than just watching.
Five festivals ran throughout the year, with plans to add more to the calendar. The Lemon Tree underwent refurbishment work designed to secure the venue’s future, part of a broader push towards long-term sustainability.
Making it accessible
They’ve put effort into accessible programming, with gifted tickets for schools and families alongside youth-led projects like Light the Blue. It’s the kind of work that recognises not everyone can afford a ticket or feels like these spaces are for them.
The infrastructure investment has strengthened their financial position, giving them stable foundations despite broader challenges facing arts organisations across the country.
Programming at scale
What stands out is an arts organisation working at scale whilst maintaining connections with communities who might otherwise be left out. Whether that’s through international programming, youth workshops, or removing ticket price barriers, there’s a clear intention to operate beyond the venue hire model.
Four hundred thousand people through the doors in a year tells you something about where Aberdeen’s cultural scene actually sits, regardless of how much attention it gets compared to Scotland’s central belt.
