Brian Kelly: Can events make money?

What an Auckland Anniversary weekend it was in the Bay.

Not only did the weather behave but there was also a feast of events to keep most of us entertained.

We had the annual Mills Reef Stars Under the Stars on Saturday and Sunday nights and, to add to that, the Tauranga Airshow.

Certainly plenty of choice, but is there too much now and is it getting harder for event organisers to draw the crowds and make events a viable financial concern? I certainly think so.

Yet for a city to remain vibrant and attract tourists, we need big events.

Let's just take a look at our local market firstly. The Creedence Clearwater Revisited concert drew a crowd of about 5000 over the two nights with Saturday night's show selling out. That's good news for concert promoter Craig Wilson, although the remaining concerts in Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington and Queenstown are nowhere near as popular as the Tauranga ones. But are there too many events on at the moment with people only having so much money to spend?

According to Mr Wilson, he is happy with the number of concerts around the country although he does point out that some events are dumped here by big promoters to try to push small players out of the market like Mr Wilson's company.

"Events need to evolve and change and that's what we are trying to do with our Mills Reef event," Mr Wilson said. "We are a local business that gets no help at all from council, we fund the whole event ourselves. Stars Under the Stars is not a council flagship event."

The Stars Under the Stars concert was up against the Tauranga Airshow, which again had a big crowd - about 15,000-20,000 - and that's great for our area. Would it have been better to hold the airshow over Waitangi weekend to avoid a clash?

But if you look further afield there are concerts and shows coming up for Africa not to mention sporting events and various festivals.

At a quick glance, the annual Mission Concert with Rod Stewart is on in a couple of weeks while, at the Villa Maria Estate in Auckland, a special concert featuring 80s bands such as Dragon and Mental as Anything will be held plus other winery concerts around New Zealand.

And looking ahead big 70s band Paper Lace and Eve Graham, the voice of the New Seekers, are touring and visiting Tauranga in April. Add to that sporting events like the rugby sevens, cricket, Breakers games, A league Phoenix matches, speedway and various motorsport events on top of the soon-to-begin Super 15 rugby season. Phew!

On the festival front, we have our annual Jazz Festival looming. A big overseas act, Earth Wind and Fire, is the drawcard concert over Easter weekend, but with ticket prices starting at $90 I question if that will get the public's support and make money.

However, the Jazz Festival is a Tauranga city flagship event and, with that status, comes council money. I guess that takes some pressure off festival organisers.

As far as the Jazz Festival is concerned, I would like to see it return to its more simplistic form of the event being centred downtown, along The Strand, without the need for stages. Perhaps making more use of the bars again.

Some events this year have really struggled. Take the Big Day Out. Lack of support meant that this year's one was the last. The Parachute Festival struggled until they dropped the price and almost gave away the tickets.

It is great that we have all these events and the choice but it is certainly hard for event organisers to attract the crowds and make the events viable. Most of us don't get annual bank CEO bonuses so we need to be selective on what we choose to go to.

I did a quick text poll on my Coast Breakfast show asking if we have too many events and the results surprised me. Sixty per cent said "no they wanted more" so it appears the public want that choice. Choose wisely.