6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Festival suggested after Sheeran snub
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich says he has a solution to attract top acts after the disappointment of the city missing out on Ed Sheeran.
Mr Radich believed the answer was creating a new event called "Dunedin Sounds" — which he first suggested after the death of Dunedin musician Martin Phillipps.
Bands from Dunedin and around the world could perform at the event which could not be taken away from Dunedin given its name.
"Maybe we could send it to Dunedin, Florida, play some shows there, and we can send it to Edinburgh because Dunedin is, after all, the Gaelic name for Edinburgh so there is a lot of synergy there.
"Just as Edinburgh has sent its Tattoo to New Zealand, we could send Dunedin Sounds to Edinburgh," he said.
He suggested Dunedin Sounds could be an event Ed Sheeran might one day headline along with other international artists including Taylor Swift.
He felt the likelihood of Dunedin Sounds coming to fruition was strong.
There had been times when there was an influx of acts to the city.
"It's either a feast or a famine."
Mr Radich said transport was not an insurmountable issue, despite telling the Otago Daily Times on Tuesday the city missed out on Ed Sheeran because the airport was too small.
He said the problem was not many artists were touring post-Covid and it was more difficult to attract acts to smaller cities.
Dunedin Venues chief executive Paul Doorn said he and his team were continuing to work aggressively to attract international acts.
Mr Doorn said the organisation's challenge was making Forsyth Barr Stadium and the city more attractive to the artists.
There was a steady stream of acts playing at the Dunedin Town Hall which had a capacity of about 2200 seats.
The stadium had a capacity of about 38,000 and international artists were necessary to fill it.
He said in the current climate it was a good sign that artists were coming to New Zealand at all, let alone the South Island.
Benefits of coming to Dunedin included the covered stadium which was like an "indoor arena on steroids" and being close to scenic locations in Central Otago and Southland.
He did not subscribe to the theory the new Christchurch stadium would take acts away from Dunedin.
While Christchurch had a bigger population, Dunedin had diversity with the student cohort and people from Central Otago and Southland.
The city had history and culture surrounding live music.
"There's a passion for live entertainment here which is really good.
"We've just got to be able to group that all together with a really good economic proposition to get them to come further south."
Dunedin Venues was working through transport challenges and trying to find clever ways to get around accommodation-related issues.
"We're working with big transport logistic-type companies to try to find and unlock more cost-effective ways to bring shipping containers down via rail or trucks."
He stressed Dunedin's airport size had not stopped big acts coming to the city in the past.
The $1.645m the Dunedin City Council put aside for events attraction funding for Dunedin Venues in its nine-year-plan made a big difference in attracting artists, he said.
He assumed Sheeran's logistics for making it to the next leg of his tour in Australia was part of the reason why there was not going to be a Dunedin show.
Dunedin Airport chief executive Daniel De Bono said while the airport was not approached by Sheeran's promoters, it maintained the full capability for narrow body jet operations.
When Pink came to Dunedin, the airport facilitated two Qantas charter flights carrying crew and equipment.
