All we want for Christmas is an Arabian night, according to TicketSource, which has revealed the UK’s most loved pantomime.
The
online event ticketing platform has been checking its Christmas list* to find out which festive pantos draw the biggest crowds each year, with Aladdin taking the number one spot.
Inspired by the Middle Eastern tale One Thousand and One Nights – the show takes its audience on a magical carpet ride to Agrabah where the magic lamp awaits.
A genie-us take on an old classic, the production has been drawing in crowds for over 200 years and is attended more than any other panto in the UK.
Coming in a close second is festive-favourite Cinderella, the rags-to-riches tale that sees young Cindy go to the ball with the help of her fairy - and often quite hairy - godmother.
The top 10 pantos in the UK are:1. Aladdin
2. Cinderella
3. Jack and the Beanstalk
4. Dick Whittington
5. Beauty and the Beast
6. Sleeping Beauty
7. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
8. Peter Pan
9. Robin Hood
10. Wizard of Oz
Terry Rosoman of TicketSource said: “When it comes to the Christmas panto, we certainly don’t stray too far from the classics. With the festive season now in full swing, families will be getting together all over the country to pay a visit to their local dame, and despite many of these shows having run for over a century, it looks like all we want is a good old-fashioned fairy tale – oh yes, we do!
“We’ve processed over £7.6 million worth of Christmas panto tickets in the last three years and helped in managing attendance for over one thousand panto events, so it doesn’t look like the panto is going to lose its appeal any time soon!”
Panto facts
> Pantos make up over half (51%) of all Christmas events
> We processed over £7,600,000 worth of panto tickets through our ticketing software over the past 3 festive seasons.
> The average price of a panto ticket is £9.55
> Aladdin and Cinderella were performed a whopping 141 times each!
> Somewhat "sur-purr-isingly", Puss in Boots came out on top as the most popular panto to attend per one event.
*Data based on the number of pantomime events held during the period January 2017 to December 2019.
Discover more updates and news on the latest features on the
TicketSource blog, such as "
The Ultimate Guide to Christmas Pantomimes", as well as stories from our community.
