Australasia News: Suncorp Stadium Shows; New Homes For Laneway, Falls Fests; Ed Sheeran Cancels NZ Show

AUSTRALIA

More Concerts For Suncorp Stadium?

With more major tours in the pipeline, the Queensland government is considering doubling the number of concerts each year at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium to 12 for 2023 and 2024.
It is surveying residents for feedback on noise and traffic. The 52,500-seat Suncorp Stadium is operated by ASM Global.

It is hosting Guns N’ Roses, Ed Sheeran, Elton John and Red Hot Chili Peppers in the next six months.

ASM Global Asia Pacific chairman Harvey Lister warned summer traffic was so busy acts were “going into stadiums but they’re also filling all the arenas. This summer we can’t get runs in indoor arenas because they want to play multiple acts.”

In Brisbane, ASM Global also operates the 14,500-seat Entertainment Center and Convention & Exhibition Centre, while Lister is lobbying for the 17,000-seat Brisbane Live Arena for use in the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.

New Homes For Laneway, Falls

Two major touring festivals, Laneway and Falls, are making post-COVID returns in new homes.

Four of six Laneway stops (Jan. 30-Feb. 12) moved from when it last staged in 2020.
Melbourne is now at the new The Park in Flemington with its own train station, and South Australia to the 17-hectare Bonython Park which hosted Festival X and Under the Southern Stars.

Promoters said staging at Sydney Showground provides next-level production, purpose-built facilities and multi-transport options. In Perth, the move to Wellington Square, which reopened March 2021 after an A$18.7 million ($12.5 million) upgrade, provides​​ up-to-date facilities and plentiful trees for shelter.

Laneway remains at Auckland’s Albert Park and Brisbane Showgrounds, drawing 16,000 each.

Meantime, this summer’s move by the Victorian leg of Secret Sounds’ three-state Falls Festival to its larger rural Birregurra site was delayed.

The council approved the site in June, allowing it to hold 25,000, up from the 16,000 it drew in its longtime home in surfside Lorne.
But a group of locals appealed the decision at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The case was only set to be heard February-March 2023, so the event and its headliners Arctic Monkeys, Lil Nas X, Peggy Gou, CHVRCHES and Jamie xx moved to Melbourne city’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl and surroundings Dec. 29-31.

Promoter Makes Theft Claim Over 1D Tour

Lawyers for Sydney promoter Mark Filby told NSW Supreme Court TEG had “stolen” his idea to have supermarket chain Coles underwrite and cross-promote a 2013 tour by One Direction. Filby said he’d had a meeting with TEG chief executive Geoff Jones that February.

The Brit act’s tour with Nine Live (TEG’s name then) saw 10,000 tickets sold through Coles stores for an Oct. 6 matinee show in Sydney.
TEG’s defense was it had already begun a similar concept with Coles, and no confidential information from Filby was used.

NEW ZEALAND

Ed Sheeran Cancels First Wellington Show

Frontier Touring canceled Ed Sheeran’s first of two shows in Wellington, citing “on-going uncertainties affecting a number of different variables with global touring.” It had announced the Feb. 1 show in June after the Feb. 2 date, also at the 34,500-seat Sky Stadium, sold out.

Patrons can shift to “limited pool” of reserved tickets at the Feb 2 show or get a 50 per cent discount on new tickets to the second Auckland show Feb. 11 at Eden Park. The Feb. 10 show, at the 50,000-cap venue, sold out.

Sheeran famously declared in the past, “My favorite city in the world to be in is Wellington.” His remaining date in the city is expected to “boost its tourism, accommodation, hospitality and retail businesses,” WellingtonNZ Events & Experiences general manager Warrick Dents said.