Ticketmaster, a Live Nation Entertainment company, has announced its annual Ticketmaster Awards which acknowledge the best-selling Ticketmaster events of the last 12 months.
The best-selling event overall is the iconic Sydney Royal Easter Show which is Australia’s largest annual ticketed event attracting 850,000 people each year. For 12 days over Easter, the event now in its 195th year, is spread across 24 pavilions, three entertainment arenas and a variety of outdoor precincts.
“It is an honour to continue being Australia’s largest ticketed event and we’re thrilled to win the Ticketmaster Award for the best-selling event of 2017. We appreciate the work that Ticketmaster provides in support of the Sydney Royal Easter Show and look forward to another successful year in partnership together,” said Murray Wilton, General Manager of Agriculture and Sydney Royal Easter Show.
The 2017 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix took out the best-selling sports event. Almost 300,000 motor racing enthusiasts attended the four-day event in March, with German driver, Sebastian Vettel, finishing in first place ahead of Britain’s Lewis Hamilton and Finland’s Valtteri Bottas.
Best-selling festival is the 2018 Red Hot Summer tour which features artists such as John Farnham, Suzi Quatro, The Angels, Daryl Braithwaite, Baby Animals, The Screaming Jets and Icehouse. The four month tour, which kicked off in Mulwala this January, will visit a number of regional areas around Australia including Mannum, Rottnest Island, Mornington, Launceston, Mount Gambier, Ballarat, Batemans Bay, Bella Vista and Bribie Island, before finishing up in Dubbo in April.
Taking out this year’s best-selling musical is Broadway and West-End smash hit The Book of Mormon. The winner of numerous Tony, Grammy and Olivier Awards set a record for the highest grossing onsale of any musical theatre production in Sydney’s history with more than 45,000 tickets sold by the end of the first day of public sales. In Melbourne, the show broke the house record for the highest selling onsale period of any production in the Princess Theatre’s 159-year history in Melbourne.
Best-selling musician is Ed Sheeran who is about to/currently playing down under with his ÷ (Divide) tour. Ed has officially broken the Australasian touring record with a total of 18 stadium shows, beating AC/DC’s record of 14 in 2010. Ed Sheeran kicks off the biggest tour in Australian and New Zealand history in Perth’s brand new Optus Stadium.
For the second year running, Queensland funny guy Carl Barron is the best-selling comedian and it seems audiences can’t get enough. Another record breaker, Carl’s Drinking With A Fork tour sold out a record 8 shows in Newcastle, Canberra (9 shows), Wagga (6 shows), Pt. Macquarie, (6 shows) Darwin (5 shows), Lismore (6 shows) and three in Grafton (one of those in under 90 minutes).
“2017 was a truly incredible year for selling tickets and live event attendance and we congratulate all the Ticketmaster Awards Winners. It’s great to see so many Australians and New Zealanders out and about experiencing the magic of live events across all genres,” said Maria O’Connor, Managing Director of Ticketmaster Australasia.
The Ticketmaster Awards also acknowledge the top 5 best-selling Australian Acts which are Midnight Oil, Carl Barron, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly and John Farnham, as well as best-selling events by State.
Best-selling Ticketmaster events by State:
▪ Victoria – The Book of Mormon
▪ New South Wales – Sydney Royal Easter Show
▪ Queensland – Brisbane Heat Vs Sydney Sixers South Australia – Robbie Williams at Adelaide 500
▪ Tasmania – Hobart Hurricanes Vs Sydney Thunder (WBBL & BBL Double Header)
▪ Western Australia – Ed Sheeran
