ANZ records tumble for P!nk’s Summer Carnival Tour
P!nk’s Summer Carnival Tour is poised to break the record for the most stadium concerts by any artist touring Australia and New Zealand.
The American singer launches the Live Nation-produced run, which will stop in 10 cities for 20 shows across 44 days, with two nights at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium this weekend (9-10 February).
Summer Carnival is already the biggest selling AU/NZ tour ever for a female artist and is set to place her among the top three biggest selling artists ever in the region, with close to one million fans expected to attend her dates in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Townsville, Dunedin and Auckland.
“I said it was going really well but ‘I’ve got a challenge for you. Ed Sheeran did 18 concerts on his last stadium tour, and if you do add one more city, you’ll break his record,’” Live Nation Australasia chair Michael Coppel tells the Daily Telegraph. “She said ‘Let’s do it!’
“At this point we are over 850,000 tickets and she will sell 900,000 before we’re done, which will probably make it the second biggest tour ever in Australia [trailing only Sheeran in terms of ticket sales]. It will be the biggest ever tour by a female artist.”
The imminent tour will also see P!nk reach the milestone of more than three million tickets sold across her career in Australia and New Zealand – comfortably the highest number of tickets sold in those countries by any artist.
“One of the reasons Australians loves P!nk is she has put the time into coming here for more than 20 years,” says Coppel, who recalls the star’s first visit to the region in 2004.
“She sparked something with Australia because she is who she is, and the albums got bigger and bigger, and the tours got bigger and bigger”
“That first tour was a real struggle,” he explains. “She didn’t have an audience here yet, we sold 25,000 tickets over six shows, and we lost a lot of money as the promoter. But then she sparked something with Australia because she is who she is, and the albums got bigger and bigger, and the tours got bigger and bigger.”
Joining P!nk as special guest on the tour will be multi-platinum award-winning Australian singer and songwriter, Tones And I.
“P!nk was really keen on having Tones open because she wants to be empowering of female artists,” adds Coppel. “You’ve seen in America she had Pat Benatar and her good friend Brandi Carlile play.”
The blockbuster trek is also returning to Europe between 11 June and 25 July, before returning to North America. P!nk also recently announced a second outing in North America for 2024, dubbed P!nk Live.
IPM will also delve behind the scenes for the Inside P!nk’s Summer Carnival session on 29 February at this year’s ILMC. Key individuals from the production and team will walk through the tour to discuss just how it came together, the key challenges it has faced, and how the production has delivered such monumental impact.
Confirmed for the panel are Okan Tombulca of eps, alongside Marshall Arts’ Barrie Marshall and Craig Stanley, while production manager Malcom Weldon – the recipient of this year’s IQ Gaffer Award – will join the discussion from on tour in Australia.
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