Vancouver’s annual Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival continues to see increasing attendance, the theatre company says.

This year’s productions of The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and King John drew 86,000 people in total, up 2,000 from the previous season.

In a news release, Bard artistic director Christopher Gaze credited the rising numbers to the quality of the productions and the expanded 742-seat Mainstage Theatre tent.

In 2011, festival attendance also increased, up 5,000 from the previous year.

With the 2012 season now over, Bard on the Beach has also announced the playbill for next year.

The 2013 plays include the comedy Twelfth Night, the tragedy Hamlet, the morality study Measure for Measure, and Elizabeth Rex, by Canadian playwright Timothy Findley.