THE Fringe has defied the odds again.

Despite the August rain and the ongoing economic pain, the world’s biggest arts festival has registered another record-breaking year, with 1,877,119 tickets issued, it was announced last night.

This compares with 1,829,931 tickets issued in 2010, representing a increase of 47,188 tickets, or a 2.6% rise.

However, with estimates for the unticketed free shows at the Fringe added, the total comes to far more than two million visits, paid and unpaid, to Fringe shows this summer.

Alex Petty, who runs the Laughing Horse Free Fringe Festival, estimated around 247,360 people attended the 6184 performances at his free festival, an average of 40 people per show.

Peter Buckley Hill declined to estimate how many people had attended the PBH Free Fringe he organises -- which featured 325 shows -- but said all who took part were “satisfied”.

The Fringe’s official total does not include estimates for free shows with no tickets, but does include the total for ticketed free shows.

Kath M Mainland, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: “I am delighted to an-nounce this year the Fringe has been another incredibly successful event.

“The courage and creativity of the thousands of individuals who participate in this unique, world-class event are what make this such an inspiring and important festival.

“Performers of all disciplines and backgrounds coming together to tell their stories and share their ideas is an utterly compelling prospect for audiences, who have flocked to this beautiful festival city.”

“That almost 1.9 million tickets have been issued for this great festival is a great testament to the resilience of the world’s largest arts festival.

“The Fringe’s committed, loyal and risk-taking audiences have this year enjoyed another exciting, exhilarating, challenging and entertaining month in Edinburgh.”

The bad weather of August took its toll on the Edinburgh International Book Festival. It recorded 190,000 visits to its Charlotte Square site, down from 200,000 last year, with 73% of its tickets sold, compared with 75% last year.

Andrew Coulton, the book festival’s administrative director, said “This year’s programme was bigger than ever, with almost 2.5% more tickets available than last year -- not including our free Unbound programme.

“Having sold 73% of all seats, we are proud our festival continues to draw such large audiences in a time of continuing economic uncertainty. Sales in our independent festival bookshops were on a par with last year, an outstanding performance demonstrat- ing that -- to paraphrase Mark Twain -- reports of the death of the book are greatly exaggerated.

“Even Scotland’s wettest August on record hasn’t managed to dampen spirits in Charlotte Square Gardens.”

Last night the Book Festival came to a close with a two-hour reading of Alasdair Gray’s play Fleck, narrated by Liz Lochhead and read by figures such as Ian Rankin, AL Kennedy, Cora Bissett and Will Self.

Yesterday, the Edinburgh International Festival -- which carries on for another week -- announced its own award for the Fringe, by picking New York’s The TEAM (Theatre of the Emerging American Moment) for its show Mission Drift. The TEAM will now present work in development at next year’s Festival.

At the weekend, Adam Riches became the 31st winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

Also at the Fringe, this year’s Allen Wright awards, for excellence in Fringe writing by young journalists, were won by Matt Trueman and Kirstin Innes.

Sophie Kindriech of The Herald had been short-listed for the honours.

Billy Mack became the first performer to win at The Stage Awards for acting excellence for a second time. Mack won his second Best Actor award for The Overcoat at the Pleasance Dome.

Best Actress was Alessija Lause, who appeared in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, while the best ensemble award went to Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre for The Monster in the Hall.