Adele sets new Melbourne record as she farewells Australia
Adele farewelled a triumphant Australian tour by setting a new attendance record at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium with 77,300 on her second and final show on Sunday. The day before, the crowd reached 75,300.
These are the two biggest events to be held at the stadium since it opened in 2000.
The Melbourne shows, coming after she visited the set of Australian TV show Neighbours, were marked with two memorable incidents.
At the second show, the singer randomly pulled a man called Chris out of the crowd to join her onstage. She’d earlier seen him burst into tears when she walked past him singing Hello.
To their surprise, he was followed on to the stage by his boyfriend, Wade, who dropped to his knee and proposed.
The massive crowd understandably went wild, and Adele gave the couple a hug. “Thank you for doing that, that was emotional,” she told them.
A security man ordering fans to sit down also got a serve from the singer.
“Excuse me sir, I know you work here but could you stop telling people to sit down? This is a music show. If people can’t see they can stand up. If you’re moaning about people dancing, what the fuck have you come to a show for? If I see one more person get told to sit down, I swear to God…”
The Adele juggernaut has moved to New Zealand, where she plays Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday to 130,000 fans.
She set a new record, becoming the fastest selling act by moving over 100,000 tickets in one day. Live Nation president Michael Coppel said the singer could have easily sold out two more shows.
Adele broke the previous record of 95,000 which was set in 2010 by U2. Earlier, Pink Floyd drew 80,000 in 1988.
Reports from hospitality groups say that all of Auckland’s hotel rooms are booked out, and Air New Zealand added 15,000 more seats to cope with demand. Fans were forced to stay in Hamilton overnight and commute to the shows, reported the Stuff site.
Over the next few days, it will be Auckland’s turn to rise to the challenge in an attempt to cope with the traffic.