Mission Concert: The week of Robbie Williams - 50,000-strong turnout expected for Brit icon’s Napier gigs

Robbie Williams performs at the final of X Factor Italy 2019 at Mediolanum forum. Milan (Italy), December 12th, 2019

Mission Estate concert promoter Garry Craft is confident Hawke’s Bay will come to the party and sell out both Robbie Williams concerts this weekend.

The first concert, taking place on Saturday night after being announced 14 months ago, was sold-out within hours, and the frenzy continued when a second was confirmed for 24 hours later, part of would have been the biggest year of Mission Concerts had it not been for the cancellation of Sting’s show on the first weekend of March due to Cyclone Gabrielle’s devastation three weeks earlier.

What was to be a once-a-year parade of the icons of the music scene when Dame Kiri Te Kanawa coveted the first Mission in 1993 has since morphed into a succession of annual concerts, leading up to what was to have been a four-show event in 2023.

There was no stopping Sir Rod Stewart, the star of the 2005 and 2012 concerts, coming back again in April, and despite what might once have been seen as a flooding of the market, Craft said after arriving in Napier on Friday, he expects 25,000 people at each of the two concerts this week.

Whether the pace can be kept up is another matter, for while options are being considered for the next 12 months, it is likely the next Mission Concert after this weekend will not be until late next year or early 2025.

“We have got a couple of very exciting possibilities – if they come off,” Craft said.

The availability of the icons on whom Mission has staked its name is not what it used to be, while there are still acts heading Downunder.

But the likes of American acts such as Taylor Swift, performing in Australia next year, Matchbox Twenty, in New Plymouth and Christchurch in February and March, and Pink, performing in Auckland and Dunedin in March, don’t suit the profile of a concert which has endured a loyal following, which raises the question: Has any patron been to every single Mission Concert?

“If we don’t have the right act, we haven’t got a concert,” Craft said. “It’s the difference between 70 per cent and 100 per cent, but we haven’t had any acts that failed.”

The nearly 50-year-old Williams, on a 25th anniversary tour which has already seen about 60 dates this year, will arrive late in the week with an entourage of about 80 people – 16 are in the performing troupe of Williams, comprising the band and dancers, while many others are from Auckland or Wellington, posing some accommodation issues, with some staff being accommodated as far away as Taupō and Taihape.

The first staff were on-site on October 23, with all manner of site establishments taking place under the watchful eye of health and safety specialists.

The show goes on despite the rising costs, with fuel and freight having big impacts, the cost of the event more than doubling since 2018 and now sitting at over $500,000.

Commenting on a seemingly high number of on-sales taking place on social media, Craft, whose first Mission concert with Australian company SEL was Cliff Richards’ appearance in 1993, said “people’s lives change”, including one couple who are being refunded.

“When there are 50,000 tickets, things happen,” he said.

One couple whose lives have changed were to have flown from Israel, “but for obvious reasons they are having difficulty getting out of the country”, Craft said, conceding the compassionate side has prevailed in that case.

The Mission has again gone with mainly local talent for the support acts, with 17-year-old Dannevirke singer and songwriter Molly Pawson first on stage at 2.30pm.

Two of the support acts for the 2019 Elton John concerts will be back, with Danika Bryant, from Bay View but now based in Wellington, taking to the stage with her band at 3.45pm, and Stretch on at 5pm.

International performer Ladyhawke, who’s from Masterton and appeared in Napier in September at the NPC rugby competition’s Battle of the Bays event at McLean Park, will be up on stage at 6.15pm. Williams will start at 8pm, and the show is expected to be over by about 10pm.

A long-range forecast is for fine weather with light winds in Napier next weekend.