Ticket prices for shows at the Gaiety Theatre and the Villa Marina are set to rise from January to help maintain the buildings.

While the face value of the tickets will not change, VillaGaiety has announced the ticket booking fee will rise from 2% to 5% from January 10 and applies to live performances.

Since August 2013 VillaGaiety incorporated a 2% booking fee as part of each ticket price which goes towards the hosted system charges applied by ticketing service provider, Ticketsolve.

The added 3% will going towards a VillaGaiety Development Fund to maintain and improve the two venues.

VillaGaiety said: ‘We will soon be making changes to the ticket booking fee structure that applies to live performances. The booking fee will move outside of the ticket price and sit alongside a fee which will support the development and improvement of the venues long term.

‘The newly set 5% booking fee will still cover the 2% ticketing costs outlined above, with the additional 3% being ring-fenced to create the VillaGaiety Development Fund to be invested back into the venues on a rolling basis.

‘All ticket purchases made prior to the 10th January will be bookable with the current ticket and booking fee structure whereby all ticket prices are inclusive of a 2% booking fee.’

VillaGaiety says the new charge will help safeguard the future of two of the island’s most important entertainment venues.

It says: ‘Our aim is to continually improve VillaGaiety as a place where our island community can engage with live performance and access creativity throughout their lifetime.

‘We are committed to ensuring the venue’s legacy is preserved and to achieve this, we need to fund improvements that customers can see and feel when visiting the venues.

‘The VillaGaiety Development Fund will be wholly funded by the additional 3% booking fee and utilised to improve and enhance facilities to positively impact the audience experience and safeguard the venues as cultural assets for future generations of audiences and performers yet to come.’

The fund will be managed carefully in line with an annual plan of priorities aligned with the maintenance and refurbishment needs of the venues, Villa Gaiety says.

‘Our aim is to be transparent with how we spend this 3% of the booking fee that is allocated to the fund’, it added. ‘To do so VillaGaiety will produce a short annual report (via our website) which outlines how and what the funds have been used for and what future project plans look like too.’

The booking fee increase will not apply to Broadway Cinema or the Dragon’s Castle play area.