The Festival is over for another year and there is no doubt there have been some spectacular performances over the past month. But audience numbers for some productions were lower than expected and with more venues than ever opening their doors the question some are beginning to ask is how can they be filled? Reporter Emily-Ann Elliott speaks to the staff who run the venues and asks: is there too much choice?

Over the past few years the number of venues offering shows at the Brighton Festival has increased greatly, including the recent arrival of the Udderbelly and the Spiegeltent.

And despite the high quality of many of the performances I saw, some of the venues were less than packed out.

While the main festival had a good year, reaching its financial targets and achieving 77 per cent of its total capacity of ticket sales, audiences for shows including Norman, at the Theatre Royal, Manic Organic, at The Dome and Medeski, Martin and Wood, at The Dome, did not fill the venues.

Jane McMorrow, festival producer, said: "We had a very good year and turnout has been very strong.

"But for Norman we would have liked to have seen more and we need to look at that and ask why we didn't get the numbers we had hoped for. With Manic Organic we didn't expect it to be full because it was a very specialist music event.

"When putting together the overall programme it is about getting a balance of shows that will sell really strongly and other more specialised shows, which the festival provides a platform for.

"The good thing with the festival is if the programme is strong it doesn't matter what day of the week an event is on, audiences will come to it.

"The pattern with the fringe is that it had strong ticket sales during the weekend and then a steep decline during the week."

One fringe venue which experienced a smaller turnout than expected was Komedia for Coco Peru, which sold well for its first night but struggled for the rest of its run.

Chris Challis, Komedia's press officer, said: "I think it was due to a mixture of things.

"The weather certainly plays an important part. People would rather be sitting outside in the sun than in a dark theatre.

"Maybe it is also due to the fact that so much is going on.

Certainly during the week events are really only filled by Brightonians.

"Maybe we could improve transport links and maybe we need more advertising in areas like Eastbourne and Hastings.

"But choice is always a good thing and is what makes Brighton Festival so loved."

However Charlie Wood, codirector of the Udderbelly, is concerned the festival and fringe have grown too big, too quickly.

In its second year, thanks to an increase in shows, the venue sold more than 50 per cent more tickets - a 15 per cent rise in sales on a seat by seat basis. But it had disappointing sales for shows like All Dolled Up.

Mr Wood said: "There is always a temptation to try to do the same as Edinburgh, where the mark of success was always whether you had sold more tickets, got more shows and got more venues. The fringe and festival are both great festivals but won't ever be Edinburgh, which is very unique.

"I really think Brighton should try to focus on growing its own festival and actually work on the quality of the work being presented rather than just on sizes. Size doesn't always mean success."

But Holly Payton, communications manager for the fringe, disagreed it had grown too quickly. She said: "Maybe if it grew again next year it would be too fast, but that isn't going to happen.

"We generally got good feedback about audiences. There were a few shows which didn't sell as well as expected, but I don't think there are too many venues. We sold more advance tickets by the opening weekend than we sold during the whole of the 2007 fringe.

"Our intention was never to grow too quickly, because that is unsustainable. We obviously don't want the external venues taking away tickets from local venues but we want the new venues to be successful as well, because they massively raise the festival's profile."

Nicky Haydn, from Upstairs at Three and Ten, said: "I think Brighton really benefits from having so many venues, particularly the visiting ones."