Association of Leading Visitor Attractions

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10 Nov 2016

David Bowie exhibition smashes V&A attendance record

David Bowie Is – the touring exhibition that took on a new meaning after the death of the music icon – has become the most visited show in the V&A's history, with more than 1.5 million people flocking to see the blockbuster show across its eight venues so far.

According to V&A, around 312,000 people visited the exhibition during its initial London run in 2013. It then travelled to a number of countries including Canada, Brazil, the US, France and what was originally the final stop for the tour, Groningen in the Netherlands.

Following the singer’s death in January 2016, the Groniger Museum reported a jump in sales of 30,000 tickets to the retrospective in a week, having sold 50,000 tickets total since its debut a month earlier. Groniger was originally intended to be the final stop for the exhibition, but that was extended with renewed interest following Bowie’s death.

The show will complete its 10-stop tour next year, with the show entering its final weeks at the Museum of Modern Art in Bologne, before heading to Tokyo in January 2017 and completing its tour in Barcelona in May.

The show has significantly passes the V&A's most successful touring exhibitions, with the closest being Art Deco, which received 1.17 million visitors, and Vivienne Westwood, which welcomed 844,000 people.