Following concerns there are no shows booked at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium for the next 12 months, Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML) is assuring southern residents a string of artists will be announced from November.
DVML chief executive officer Paul Doorn said it was true there were no concerts on the company’s website at present, but it was still logistically too early to make any announcements.
He said it was still only September, and staff were busy working on a tender for a new ticketing company.
“So, we’re just navigating that as we speak because our ticketing contract finishes at the end of January.
“The way the concert industry works, in particular, is that your ticketing deal is very heavily connected to the content that those companies bring.
“So, for example, Ticketmaster, who we’re currently with, is partnered with Live Nation.
“There are other companies out there like Ticketek, which are part of Ticketek Entertainment Group, and you’ve got other ones that have got different partnerships.
“There are artists aligned with Ticketek and there are artists aligned with Ticketmaster.
“Until that [the tendering] is finalised, it just makes announcing concerts a little bit difficult.
“The companies are not announcing anything at the minute until we finalise our ticketing agenda, because they don’t even know if they’re going to have the rights to ticket the stadium beyond February 1 next year.”
Mr Doorn said the ticketing tender would be completed in early November, and DVML would be able to start announcing concert dates soon after.
“So, it’s not the doom and gloom that has been presented.
“I know there’s a lot of people that will talk about Christchurch and all those sorts of things, but I’m still very confident that there’ll be major events at the stadium next year.
“We’ve got a variety of different things that we’re looking at.”
He said DVML knew how important concerts and events like monster trucks were to southern residents, and staff were also investigating “a variety of different options” to make the stadium more appealing for other artists as well.
“Like the concrete slab, for example, at the east end — is that something that’s attractive to a music festival sort of thing, with a DJ?
“We’re just thinking about the stadium a little bit differently and just working really closely with interested parties.
“There’s a variety of discussions happening, and I am confident and I am positive.”