Auckland’s $53 million summer of fun
Auckland’s summer of fun is set to pump a whopping $53 million into the economy of the City of Sails. Sold-out gigs from the likes of global superstars U2 and Elton John, and Kiwi hit-makers Six60; stage shows including The Book of Mormon, Mary Poppins and Snow White; family-friendly Auckland Zoo Open Lates, and sports events including the Monster Energy SX Open and the Auckland Tuatara in the Australian Baseball League are set to entertain all-comers over the summer months.
Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA) revealed concerts and major events at its venues including Mt Smart Stadium, Western Springs Stadium and The Civic would attract more than 394,000 punters between now and the end of March.
Of that number, more than 168,000 will travel from outside, pumping millions into a “gig economy”; including tickets, hospitality, accommodation, travel and merchandise.
The total worth to gigs at RFA venues was estimated to pass the $50m mark.
RFA chief executive Chris Brooks says Auckland has now entrenched itself as New Zealand’s entertainment capital.
“Over the past eight years, we have successfully positioned Auckland as a vibrant summer entertainment destination where you can attend major international touring concerts, blockbuster musicals, exhibitions and festivals,” Brooks says.
“This has a significant flow-on effect for Auckland’s economy, including the accommodation, hospitality and tourism sectors.
“It is extremely rewarding to see the huge economic and cultural benefits our activities bring to the city — and this summer will be our biggest yet.”
RFA says the two U2 concerts at Mt Smart Stadium, the Green Day musical American Idiot, which has been held at The Civic and the upcoming Les Miserables production at the same venue would have combined ticket sales topping 100,000. U2 will bring their Joshua Tree Tour to New Zealand; playing their entire 1987 Joshua Tree album, plus all their other greatest hits, on November 8 and 9. Along with the music, fans have been promised a multimedia show like no other. “We decided to give the visual element back to Anton [photographer and film-maker Anton Corbijn] because it’s his aesthetic,” Willie Williams, the band’s creative director and the man responsible for every U2 show over the past 37 years, recently told the Herald.
“The whole vibe of that album, the way it looks, that is Anton’s aesthetic. We realised that we had to give him the best canvas that we possibly could.
“The screen we have fills the end of the stadium and it actually looks 3D sometimes, because the quality of his films is so astonishing, and the playback is absolutely unprecedented. The pictures are jaw-droppingly beautiful.”
Another must-have summer gig experience will be Six60 at Western Springs Stadium on February 22.
The show is already a sell-out. This year the band rewrote New Zealand music history when their first headline show at the legendary Auckland venue sold out.
“It’s incredible to be able to play Western Springs again, selling it out is really a tribute to our bond with our fans,” they said in statement earlier this month.
Seven major events last summer at three Auckland Council venues — Mt Smart Stadium, Western Springs and The Civic — pumped in at least $21m into the Auckland economy.
Those events — which attracted more than 200,000 people to them — included concerts by Taylor Swift, Mumford & Sons, Fat Freddy’s Drop and Six60, plus Disney’s Aladdin, and the Auckland round of the Monster Energy S-X Open. About 40 per cent of those people who attended the events had travelled from outside Auckland.
Brooks said at the time one of the highlights had been Six60‘s historic gig at Western Springs, the first Kiwi band to sellout the venue.
“That’s a really great outcome.” Even more was injected into the Auckland economy over the summer of 2017, which saw gigs by Justin
Bieber, Guns N’ Rosers, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay and Adele leading to a staggering $37.7m cash windfall. Adele’s concerts in Auckland attracted an estimated 130,000 gig-goers.