Bon Jovi 2018 tour will include Metricon show

BON Jovi are set to answer Gold Coast music fans’ prayers next year when they bring their 2018 Australian tour to Metricon Stadium.

Leading promoter Paul Dainty, president and CEO of TEG Dainty, said he had been working to deliver local music fans a stadium show at the home of the Gold Coast Suns AFL team.

“When Bon Jovi tours next year, I’ll bring them to Metricon,” he said.

“We had something for February next year but we couldn’t get it in there with the Commonwealth Games but we’ve got Bon Jovi coming in 2018/2019.”

The “something” is believed to have been The Queen tour featuring Adam Lambert.

Mr Dainty’s local partner Billy Cross, from Cross Promotions, said a Bon Jovi show at Metricon followed by the twoday SandTunes festival at Coolangatta would help put the Gold Coast back on the summer live music map.

“We had the Big Day Out back in the day and we knew how good that was for the local economy,” Mr Cross said. “Having something like this and HangOut takes it to another level. It’s exactly what we need.”

The stadium show would be the first concert at Metricon since the Gold Coast Big Day Out in 2014 — the year of the touring festival’s last stand.

The city was left with a gaping $60 million hole on its summer events calendar in the wake of the demise of the Big Day Out and dance music fes- tival Summafieldayze.

“It’s the best stadium in the country but we need to do more to entice them,” Mr Cross said.

TEG Dainty was formed last year after TEG, the Ticketek owners formerly known as Nine Live, bought Mr Dainty’s company Dainty Group.

Economic Development and Major Projects Committee chair Hermann Vorster said yesterday Mr Dainty and his SandTunes festival partners had attracted acts such as Queen, Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Guns N Roses and the Rolling Stones to various locations around the world.

“It would be my hope that they would do precisely the same on the Coast,” he said.