And a lack of large-scale touring shows has been blamed.

Attendance in the ACT fell by 29.8 per cent from 2013 to 246,542 in 2014 and revenue was down 8.3 per cent to $13,852,222, an annual survey from industry peak body Live Performance Australia reveals.

Canberrans spent just $36.06 each on live performance – the third lowest amount per capita of all state and territories. While Victorians spent the most ($77.71) and Northern Territorians spent the least ($12.84).

LPA chief executive Evelyn Richardson blamed the slump on a decrease in the number of shows travelling to Canberra in 2014, particularly in the circus and physical theatre category.

"It's what we'd call the Cirque du Soleil factor," she said.

"In the years where there's a lot of, particularly international, acts touring whether they are musicals, ballet or circuses you often see the revenue and attendance numbers go up and when they're not touring they come down again."

Like the rest of Australia, contemporary music remained the most popular genre in the ACT accounting for more than a third of the territory's revenue ($4,836,355) and total attendance (80,351).

Nationally, musical theatre was the second largest contributor to the industry, but the ACT bucked the trend with only 4000 tickets issued accounting for 1.5 per cent of total attendance and 1.2 per cent of revenue.

Instead the second most popular genre in the ACT was children's and family shows accounting for 14.3 per cent of total attendance and theatre made the second largest revenue contribution of 13.7 per cent.

Ms Richardson said a drop in average ticket prices and lower consumer confidence did not dampen concert-goers nationwide with total revenue increasing by 2 per cent and attendance growing by 3.4 per cent in 2014.

ArtsACT acting director Sam Tyler said the agency's economic overview, released in June, found Canberra failed to attract as many larger theatre productions and music concerts as other capital cities because of its smaller size.

"However Canberrans tended to spend nearly twice as much on live theatre as households in other capitals and 1.7 times as much on music concerts," she said.

The survey reveals the ACT accounted for a smaller share of the country's total attendance (1.3 per cent) compared to its population (1.6 per cent).

Ms Tyler said the LPA survey didn't capture the ticketing systems used at Canberra's small and medium venues, the industry's primary base, or its community performance sector.

Ms Richardson said the figures suggested more funding may be needed to bring commercial shows to smaller capital cities particularly large musical theatre productions.

"When you look at the costs involved particularly for those larger scale shows it makes it [touring] a difficult proposition," she said.

"We're always talking to governments at a state and federal level about supporting the creation and touring of new works."

Ms Richardson said she hoped the new national program announced by arts minister George Brandis would mean more funding for shows touring outside of the larger capital cities.

Ms Tyler said the ACT Government was working to support the industry with direct support through the Events and Arts Funds and regulatory reform.

Despite the slump in live performance attendance, Ms Tyler said ACT households had an otherwise high consumption of arts and culture with almost 350,000 people visited one of the agencies venues in 2013-14.

About 191,200 Canberrans attended at least one performing arts event in 2013–14, ABS data reveals.

But going to the cinema was the most popular cultural activity with 237,300 territorians going at least once and 156,500 visiting an art gallery.

Of all jurisdictions, the ACT had the highest overall attendance rates (94 per cent), cinema attendance (80 per cent), and art gallery attendance (53 per cent).

Ms Tyler said ArtsACT's economic impact report found Canberra households spent about 1.3 per cent of their gross household income on arts and cultural goods and services, whereas the average across all capitals was 1.1 per cent.