Australian concert tickets fares well in global Q3, while LPA survey shows slight growth in 2016
Australia fared well in Pollstar magazine’s global year-to-date Q3 2017 look at ticket sales, while a local survey by Live Performance Australia showed there was a slight increase in ticket revenue and sales through 2016.
Five Australian companieswere ranked in the world’s Top 100 promoters’ operations in the year so far, withFrontier Touringlanding at #17 (with 587,098 tickets), followed at #21 with TEG Dainty(with 534,821).
Chugg Entertainmentreached #38 with 313,133; TEG Live at #56 with 208,881 and Bluesfest Touring’s shifting 179,747 tickets ranked it at #59.
Live Nation Australia’s specific sales are not known as these were incorporated into its global sales, which were 33.1 million tickets and topped the list.
Twenty six venues also made the grade in their specific categories, with outdoor stadiums being one of Australia’s strongest points.
The Top 200 category saw at Sydney’sANZ Stadium come in at#20 (150,113 sales), followed by Byron Bay’s Bluesfest’s homeTyagarah Tea Tree Farmat #39 (105,123),Melbourne Cricket Groundat #60 (73,114), and Melbourne’sEtihad Stadium(54,821) andAAMI Park (51,192)at #81 and #91 respectively.
Of the Top 200 Arenas, Quodos Bank Arena, Sydney was #67 with 191,005 tickets; Perth Arena at #69 (187,450), Brisbane Entertainment Centre at #78 (167,635), Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion at #96 (125,676), Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne at #97 (125, 623), Hisense Arena, Melbourne at #193 (36, 502) and Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena at #200 (35, 184).
Of the five in the Top 200 Theatres, ICS Sydney Theatre had the definite lead, shifting142, 098 and getting itself the highest local ranking of #28.
The four others were Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre at #91 (56,240), Darling Harbour Theatre, Sydney at #130 (37,481), Enmore Theatre, Sydney at #155 (28,648) and Hamer Hall, Melbourne at #172 (24,772).
Australian clubs had the best strike rate globally, with seven in the Top 200.
The Corner Hotel in Melbourne took the local lead, placed at #20 after attracting an impressive 80, 580 payers in the first nine months of the year.
At #85 was The Triffid in Brisbane (36, 248), at #112 Northcote Social Club in Melbourne (22,780), #143 the nowdefunctNewtown Social Club in Sydney (13,741), at #170 Metro City in Perth (9,302), at #182, Melbourne’s170 Russell(8,366) and at #193 Melbourne’sForum Theatre(7,553).
There was only one entry in the Top 100 Amphitheatres, Hope Estate in Pokobin, NSW, which ranked #96 with ticket sales of 19,722.
The buoyancy of the Australian live sector was also reflected in Live Performance Australia’s 13th Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey for 2016, which was released late last week.
It represents the most comprehensive information on annual ticket sales for Australian live performance events available, and used extensively by the industry, government, media and business.
In 2016, 18.78 million tickets were issued to live performance events, generating total ticket sales revenue of $1.43 billion.
That’s more than the combined attendances at AFL, NRL, Soccer, Super Rugby, Cricket and NBL in 2016 (Australian Sporting Attendances 2016, Stadiums Australia).
In comparison to 2015, ticket sales revenue increased slightly by 1.2% and in attendance by 0.8%, showing that Australia’s live performance industry has remained stable.
Contemporary music remained the largest sector, with 30.8% of revenue and 30.1% of attendance.
Other categories were ballet and dance, children’s/family events, circus and physical theatre, classical music, comedy, festivals (multi-category), festivals (contemporary music), musical theatre, opera, special events and theatre.
Per capita, NSW lead across-the-board revenue (37.1%) and attendance (32.3%) while Victoria maintained the second largest share of national revenue and attendance, representing 30% of the market.
Victoria continued to post the highest spend per capita last year ($70.52), something it’s had since 2013.
The NSW spend per capita on live performance events in 2016 ($68) was well above the national spend ($58.67 per capita).
However in Festivals (Multi-Category). SA and WA generate the majority of revenue and attendance in this category, with a combined 63.3% market share of revenue and 75.3% of attendance.
Major annual festivals held in SA and WA include Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival, WOMADelaide, Fringe World Festival (Perth) and Perth International Arts Festival.
LPA’s CEO Evelyn Richardson pointed out that the figures showed that more Australians were spending their cash on “experiences” and the economic and cultural value of the live performance industry through Australian and international talent.
But she urged that more had to be done so local talent could compete.
“We strongly believe that the government needs to step up and support greater investment in our industry which creates jobs, employs more than 34,000 people, generates significant economic activity and enriches the cultural lives of millions of Australians,” Richardson observed.