Dunedin council offers camp site after run on rooms for Pink concert
Singer Pink will perform one of the largest concerts in Dunedin, with more than 32,000 tickets sold.
The Tuesday night concert has led to almost all accommodation being sold out across the city, leading to the Dunedin City Council offering a temporary camper van site to help ease demand.
Many of the city’s iconic buildings would also be lit up in pink from Friday night, including Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, Dunedin Railway Station, Dunedin Airport, Tūhura Otago Museum, Forsyth Barr Stadium, the Grand Casino and St Paul’s Cathedral.
Meanwhile the bumper ticket sales have delighted stadium boss Terry Davies, who told The Press the concert would be one of the biggest ever held under the roof, just shy of when Ed Sheeran played three concerts in the city in 2018. It was expected that more than 60% of concert attendees would be from outside Dunedin, who would also pump more than $14m into the city.
Davies said that was a good sign for an industry still recovering slowly after Covid stopped international acts from touring, while rising production costs and exchange rates have also been recent factors.
But speculation that the venue wasn’t going to get other touring acts – or compete with Christchurch’s $683 million Te Kaha stadium – was “ridiculous”.
Currently promoters were busy touring large international acts such as Taylor Swift and Pink, while there were also a large number of smaller touring concerts
After hosting Pink, who last played at the venue in 2018, it also had Highlanders’ matches and an All Blacks’ test, while future concerts could not be ruled out, he said. It certainly wasn’t “doom and gloom”, he said.
With the expected influx of visitors the DCC had converted the Victoria Rd carpark into 100 bookable parks for certified self-contained campervans, from Monday until Wednesday.
DCC events team leader Dan Hendra said: “We’re expecting a record number of people in the city for this concert and want to make it easy for people to stay here, get around and enjoy our city.”
Rubbish bins, security services and portaloos would also be provided, with a park n ride service available for those attending the concert.
The council was also encouraging the use of #PinkDunedin for the concert.
The three-time Grammy winner will also play at Auckland’s Eden Park on March 8 and 9, with the support act featuring Australian singer songwriter Tones and I.