If it feels as though there\u2019s a world class musical act touching down in Perth every second week, that\u2019s because it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
Over the past two months, WA has welcomed the likes of Mariah Carey, Pitbull, AC\/DC, Metallica, Kendrick Lamar, Lewis Capaldi, and Doja Cat. In Grammy terms, that\u2019s a total of 19 awards in nine weeks.<\/p>\n
Wait until you\u2019ve seen the line-up for 2026.<\/p>\n
Lorde, Chappell Roan, One Republic, Kesha and Ed Sheeran are the headline pop stars flying west to start the new year, while rock fans will be banging their heads to American exports Good Charlotte and Machine Gun Kelly.<\/p>\n
Add nostalgic Brit dance party staples in Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Five in the first half the year, plus award-winning country singer Lainey Wilson, and the summer is only getting hotter.<\/p>\n
Those claiming \u201cno one good\u201d ever comes to Perth might need to hold their tongues for the foreseeable future, because the numbers \u2014 as well as the city\u2019s most prolific live music hosts \u2014 tell a different story.<\/p>\n
Between Perth HPC, formerly Challenge Stadium, and Arena Joondalup, there will be 11 entertainment events or festivals held from January to March.<\/p>\n
For comparison, the three-month span of October to December 2025 has yielded five at those two venues. Included among the events is the local debut of Froth and Fury, a heavy metal festival hitting Perth HPC in January.<\/p>\n
Harvey Lister, President and Chief Executive, Asia Pacific and Middle East, for Legends Global \u2014 RAC Arena\u2019s management company \u2014 said the \u201clist of international artists about to hit Perth over Summer and Autumn is phenomenal\u201d.<\/p>\n
The multi-purpose venue has enjoyed it\u2019s most prolific year for live music to date, according to RAC Arena General General Manager Michael Scott, and it\u2019s only set to build.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really pleased to report that our calendar at RAC Arena has returned to pre-COVID levels, in fact we\u2019ve never been so busy with over 90 ticketed events this year from both international artists like Drake, Teddy Swims and Katy Perry to local legends like Paul Kelly, Kylie Minogue and Human Nature,\u201d he told PerthNow.<\/p>\n
Last summer, the venue hosted 17 event days compared to 32 scheduled for this season. And with the return of annual sports events in HoopsFest and the United Cup tennis, it\u2019s music doing the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n
Mr Scott said the demand for international acts among local fans had also been underscored by attendance rates.<\/p>\n
He revealed RAC Arena had \u201cnever had so many shows reaching capacity as we\u2019ve had over this past 12-18 months\u201d.<\/p>\n
Add global acts in Gracie Abrams, Tyler, the Creator, and Rufus du Sol to the mix of bona fides enjoying packed crowds.<\/p>\n
![\"Tyler,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0e747d361b3e8c00759f54aa9ce35d73b608078a.jpg\")
Camera IconTyler, The Creator for his Chromakopia tour – Tyler The Creator put on an energetic and entertaining concert in his \u201cfavourite\u201d Australian city on Thursday night, where he also revealed his love for an iconic Aussie sweet. Credit: The West Australian\/The West Australian<\/p>\n
While unable to bridge the gap between Perth and the east coast, Mr Scott said his team were actively working to address the burden of distance so that fans didn\u2019t suffer.<\/p>\n
But he suggested WA\u2019s capital is a more attractive location to perform than it\u2019s fellow size or location-challenged rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom our understanding, Perth is a preferred location for touring shows over similar sized cities such as Adelaide,\u201d Mr Scott added.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur enthusiastic population and market size, world-classes facilities and the State government\u2019s investment into events, allow us to stand out from the others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Summer at Optus Stadium is also set to get louder, after the city\u2019s highest capacity venue welcomed heavy metal and rock genre-definers Metallica and AC\/DC respectively in November and December.<\/p>\n
Following the 97,000 who squeezed through the gates to witness the Aussie legends live, the stadium expects even more will follow for British superstar Ed Sheeran across his January 31 and February 1 shows.<\/p>\n
Frontier Touring anticipates the Shape of You singer will draw a whopping 110,000 total fans when his Loop Tour comes to town in the peak of summer.<\/p>\n
Optus Stadium chief executive Mike McKenna highlighted Sheeran\u2019s impact out west in July when he spruiked the venue\u2019s summer schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cEd shares a special connection with Australia and Perth, with a history that\u2019s particularly meaningful. His March 2018 performance not only marked his first-ever stadium show but also made history as the very first concert held at Optus Stadium,\u201d Mr McKenna said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEd\u2019s first two tours sold out and set records. His performance on March 12, 2023 \u2013 the final stop of the Australian leg of his previous tour \u2013 drew a crowd of 73,092 setting a record for the biggest ticketed event in WA history.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not just venue mainstays reaping the rewards of bigger attendances and increased top tier tours, with the flow on effect leading to investment in new live music spots.<\/p>\n
VenuesWest expects conceptualised custom outdoor venue Perth Park amphitheatre to be an important addition to its portfolio, housing crowds of between five and twelve thousand.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, multinational entertainment company Live Nation is planning to launch Northbridge Music Hall by the summer of 2026-27, a 3000-capacity venue expected to host 150 performances in its first year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If it feels as though there\u2019s a world class musical act touching down in Perth every second week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,136,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-360556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}