Eden Park operator seeking permission to host more concerts

The Eden Park Trust, operator of New Zealand’s National Stadium, is seeking permission to hold up to 12 concert events at the venue in a calendar year.

Resource concert was issued in 2021 for the 60,000-capacity to stage up to six concert events per year in Auckland.

Since then, Eden Park has seen shows from the likes of Coldplay, Pink, and Ed Sheeran but the Trust has expressed its desire for more.

“The Eden Park Trust seeks resource consent to hold up to 12 concert events at Eden Park in any calendar year performed by no more than six different artists or acts (excluding supporting acts),” read an Eden Park Trust statement.

“The concerts would take place on weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, subject to restrictions on frequency, duration and timing, and to being carried out in accordance with a comprehensive Operating Management Plan, incorporating Event Management, Community Consultation and Communication, Pre and Post Event Management and Traffic Management.

“Eden Park is zoned Special Purpose – Major Recreation Facility in the Auckland Unitary Plan (Operative in Part) 2016.

“It is also subject to the Eden Park Precinct. More than six concerts in a 12-month period are listed as a non-complying activity.”

A report into the environmental and social effects of concerts at Eden Park are strongly positive at both the individual and community level.

However, that excludes the noise produced and increase in transport demands.

“The social, cultural, and economic benefits of music need to be considered when assessing how concerts contribute to enabling people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural well-being and health and safety,” the report read.

“The market for musical experiences continues to expand in Auckland and concerts at Eden Park are now helping realise some of the potential benefits.”

The number of concerts held at the stadium has proved divisive in the past with some local residents opposed to the noise, anti-social behaviour and litter that tend to come with them.

Before 2021, consent had to be gained for every single concert and now Eden Park chief executive Nick Sautner wants to speed up the consent process.

“We have been operating with significant restrictions; those restrictions are the equivalent of a hotel being able to operate one night a week,” Sautner said, as reported by RNZ.

“The fast-track process for us will enable us to continue our liaison with the community, but streamline that process and expedite the changes needed to enable us to be nimble and agile.”