2022.12.08 - Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand

Guns N' Roses plane lands in Wellington for city's biggest post-Covid concert

Tom Hunt

Wellington is turning into Paradise City as mega-band Guns N' Roses fly in for the city’s biggest concert since Covid but fans who haven’t yet booked a bed will find it hard to get an affordable room for the night.

A Boeing 767-300 – believed to be used by Guns N' Roses – left Melbourne at 7.57pm on Sunday New Zealand time then touched down in Wellington at 11.02pm, according to Flightaware.com. Earlier images of the plane show it with the band’s livery but this was gone by the time it reached Wellington.

The band is winding up a global tour with gigs at Wellington’s Sky Stadium on Thursday, then Auckland’s Eden Park on Saturday.

But the 25,000 or more punters expected at Thursday’s concert have highlighted the accommodation crunch in the city, with hotel rooms on Thursday starting at $569 for a night on Booking.com, $812 on Expedia.com, and not a single room available for the night on Airbnb.co.nz.

Sky Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon confirmed Thursday’s show would be Wellington’s biggest concert since New Zealand’s borders were closed due to Covid-19 in early 2020.

Wellington also has big events coming in the form of the Fifa Women’s World Cup in mid-2023, New Zealand music festival Homegrown in March, and the opening of the Tākina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre, which is expected to bring 400,000 people to the city annually.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said it was “pretty epic to have a concert of this size in the city” and it would have financial benefits across the city.

“Our hotels are getting booked up quite heavily,” she said.

She was already in casual talks with developers about opening new hotels as the city opened up again – notably Tākina in 2023.

WellingtonNZ destination, marketing and communications general manager Todd Barberel on Sunday said accommodation shortages were a nationwide problem.

”When the borders were closed, some accommodation was mothballed, some were turned into MIQ facilities and some continued to operate, but with reduced staffing numbers as demand had decreased with the loss of international tourism.

“With the borders back open, many hotels are having to operate at reduced capacity because they don’t have enough staff to completely open.”

But there were hotels about to open to deal with Wellington’s “ever-increasing demand”, Barberel said.

Tourism and accommodation were growth areas and the government needed to improve issuing and processing of work visas – especially ahead of the Fifa Women’s World Cup, he said.

The Guns N’ Roses Wellington gig had been scheduled for November 2021 but this was postponed due to Covid restrictions.

At the time, most of New Zealand, outside of the more-restricted Auckland, was at alert level 2, meaning gatherings were limited to 100 people or less.

New Zealand’s borders did not begin to open for most non-Kiwis until early 2022.

Hospitality NZ chief executive Julie White said three factors were pushing prices up for accommodation: the skills shortages felt across New Zealand, supply of staff and accommodation being down and pushing demand up and increasing costs for staff and goods.

Guns N’ Roses last played a rainy Wellington in 2019. MetService meteorologist April Clark said Thursday’s forecast still had a lot of variability and ranged from completely dry to raining. The best chance was for it to be cloudy but dry.

Wellington stadium transformed ahead of Guns N’ Roses concert

By Georgina Campbell

Sky Stadium in Wellington is being transformed into a rock concert venue ahead of the Guns N’ Roses gig on Thursday night.

The band and more than 100 crew members touched down earlier this week in their private Boeing 777 jet for the long-awaited show.

It was postponed last year due to the Delta outbreak when the stadium ended up hosting mass vaccination events rather than international acts.

The show requires ten tonnes of audio equipment, 250 lighting fixtures, and five days to build the stage.

A big white mat has been put down over the turf at the stadium with rows of seats already in place. The stage, complete with 500sq m worth of video screens, is in place.

After the Wellington gig, the band will head to Auckland to play at Eden Park on Saturday night. The production will be packed up into 15 semi-trailers to move everything between the two cities.

Guns N’ Roses production manager William Keating flew up to Auckland yesterday to scope out the venue in advance.

He said it was great to be back travelling the world again after the pandemic.

“It’s a way of life for us, so when Covid happened and we had to sit down for two years, it was a bit of a shock to the system. So, it’s great to be back and great to be doing what we all love.”

Keating said he was expecting a “crazy” Kiwi audience for the shows.

“They remind me of the Irish a little bit ... it’s a great thing.”

MetService has forecast a mainly fine day for tomorrow’s concert in Wellington with cloud increasing in the afternoon and northerlies.

Sky Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon said there was an enormous sense of relief to have international acts back in Wellington for the first time in nearly three years.

A crowd of about 25,000 people was expected tomorrow night, he said.

“Half of those are going to come from outside of the Wellington region so there’s going to be a really good buzz around town and it feels like we’re back to normal.”

Hotels, bars, and restaurants would also benefit from the gig which was expected to inject between $8 million and $10m into the local economy, Harmon said.

Wellington hotels have recently hit an occupancy high, thanks to a strong events schedule in recent months. The capital recorded the highest monthly accommodation occupancy rate in the country in October and the number of visitors spending nights on a short-term basis is trending upwards.

Guns N’ Roses is yet to sell out and there are tickets available for both the Auckland and Wellington shows.

LA rock band Guns N' Roses return to NZ on world tour

American rock band Guns N' Roses is set to take the stage in the capital tomorrow night, three years since the city's stadium last saw a big international rock act.

While it's been described as a welcome return to normality since the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, it's also been a mammoth operation.

Production manager Will Keating told 1News the "whole production" must be perfect to ensure the band is comfortable on stage.

"The whole production has to be right. When they go on stage everything has to be consistent, the same," he said.

The last time the band was here in 2017, they were faced with the challenge of the city's strong winds.

"It was a battle to get the roof up because of the high winds, right," he said.

The crew has spent the past five days setting up 10 tonnes of audio equipment and more than 5000 square metres of video screens ahead of the show.

Tomorrow's concert is a stab at organising their show, after their first one was cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions last November.

For Sky Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon, the return of international acts and cruise ships "feels like we're back to some sense of normality".

The Wellington concert is the first leg of the band's New Zealand tour. The band is next due to perform at Auckland's Eden Park on Saturday.

By the numbers: What it takes to stage a Guns N' Roses concert



Hosting one of the world’s biggest rock bands takes some organising as Wellington’s Sky Stadium is finding out the hard way.

Guns N’ Roses – the US group behind of hits such as Paradise City, Welcome to the Jungle and November Rain – are playing the first gig of their two-date New Zealand tour in the capital on Thursday. They play again at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.

After a Covid-19 related postponement last year, GnR are the first overseas act to play Sky Stadium since Queen and Adam Lambert in February 2020.

But the logistics of staging a large-scale international production are complex:

120

International crew (and band) on road in New Zealand. Some have had a chance to do some sightseeing, but others have been too busy setting up.

3

Hours the band will play on Thursday night. Guns N’ Roses has been around since 1985 so that’s a hefty back catalogue from 1987’s Appetite for Destruction through to Chinese Democracy in 2008.

5

The number of days to build the stage in each city. The band played six concerts in Australia before arriving in New Zealand.

10

Tonnes of audio equipment is used for the shows. Add in 500 square metres of video screen and 250 lighting fixtures – that’s a lot of gear. Transport requires 15 semi-trailers.

920

The number of staff Sky Stadium needs to run the concert. This is made up of 450 hospitality staff and 470 on the security side.

1000

Kilograms of hot chips the venue has brought in. It can be hungry work using your illusion.

50,000

Drink servings being catered for. Stuff hasn’t been able to confirm what percentage of these are bourbon and cola RTDs.

Tickets to the Wellington and Auckland concerts are available through Ticketek.