{"id":40227,"date":"2025-09-24T06:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T06:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/40227\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T06:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T06:39:07","slug":"australian-dj-fisher-to-headline-bay-ovals-first-major-music-concert-in-mount-maunganui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/40227\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian DJ Fisher to headline Bay Oval\u2019s first major music concert in Mount Maunganui"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trademark Live co-director Toby Burrows said bringing Fisher to Mount Maunganui was a plan five years in the making. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always wanted to deliver something iconic at Bay Oval. It has been a long and careful process of applying for consent and making sure we had the perfect artist to launch with a bang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burrows said establishing a headlining music show at a venue for the first time meant starting from scratch.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow the stage sits, how the crowd flows, how we look after the pitch. It\u2019s a big puzzle and there is a lot of problem-solving, but that\u2019s all part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told the Bay of Plenty Times that Bay Oval was an \u201ciconic venue\u201d and organisers wanted an artist who could fill it properly for its concert debut.<\/p>\n

\"FisherFisher (Paul Nicholas Fisher), a 38-year-old Australian DJ, has been producing house music for over a decade and will perform in Mount Maunganui in 2026. Photo \/ Aaron Moffitt<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a landmark moment \u2013 the biggest artist to ever perform in the Bay and is something the city will have never experienced before.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it would be \u201cworld-class, with Fisher\u2019s energy bouncing across the oval and out to the ocean\u201d.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s announcement comes a month after Burrows announced reggae superstars UB40, featuring Ali Campbell, would perform at Bay Oval<\/a> at Waitangi Weekend, as part of the Kingston Calling 2026 tour.<\/p>\n

The concerts will fall during the venue\u2019s international cricket season, from October to March.<\/p>\n

The Oval will stage New Zealand\u2019s international cricket season-opener with a three-match T20 series<\/a> in October. <\/p>\n

\"BayBay Oval, an international cricket ground, has a spectator capacity of 12,000. Photo credit \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

It will also host an ODI against England, a West Indies test, and a South Africa double-header with the Black Caps and White Ferns.<\/p>\n

The venue\u2019s biggest event to date was its first Super Rugby match on Anzac Day<\/a>, where the Chiefs returned to Tauranga after more than a decade of no games in the region. Just over 12,000 people attended.<\/p>\n

Bay Oval general manager Kelvin Jones said the diversification of Bay Oval as more than just a cricket venue had always been at the back of his mind.<\/p>\n

While he admitted to not having known who Fisher was, he was confident Bay Oval would be a good host for the concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be a real cricket ground first and foremost, that\u2019s what our focus has been, but a community facility that can do other events is a win-win for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones said Bay Oval was a $30 million asset, and it should be used as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a big city. We should have these events.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said hosting a concert of this nature was a learning curve, especially with it falling in the cricket season. <\/p>\n

\"BayBay Oval general manager Kelvin Jones and Trademark Live co-director Toby Burrows. Photo \/ Brydie Thompson<\/p>\n

\u201cI often say you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know, but we seek advice from others who have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preserving the ground\u2019s assets \u2013 particularly the cricket wicket \u2013 was the top priority for Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting our ground to make sure we can still play cricket a few weeks later is crucial, but also, the crowds are probably double what we\u2019d get at a big cricket game.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the Mount is half our battle; it\u2019s where people want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ground hosts about 10,000 people for cricket matches, and Jones expected more than 20,000 for Fisher.<\/p>\n

Tauranga Mayor Mah\u00e9 Drysdale said seeing Bay Oval expand into hosting an international artist of this calibre spoke to the versatility of the venue and ambition for the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvents of this scale bring significant economic benefit to the local economy and allow us to showcase what our city and region has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drysdale said he would love to see Tauranga as the event capital of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cTauranga is proving it is a fantastic destination for events, and our reputation as a great host city continues to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full line-up for the Fisher Bay Oval concert will be announced in October, and tickets go on sale next week.<\/p>\n

The Spark presale opens at 7pm on Tuesday, and the Trademark Live presale opens 7pm Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trademark Live co-director Toby Burrows said bringing Fisher to Mount Maunganui was a plan five years in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1135,1561,25759,36445,1888,36090,36446,78,661,17707,13233,157,111,43,139,69,36447,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-40227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-australian","9":"tag-bay","10":"tag-concert","11":"tag-dj","12":"tag-first","13":"tag-fisher","14":"tag-headline","15":"tag-in","16":"tag-major","17":"tag-maunganui","18":"tag-mount","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-ovals","25":"tag-to"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}