Numbers Add Up for Fleetwood Mac

When it comes to organising two international concerts at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands, it’s all about the numbers.

Such as 3,000 ice creams, 8,000 hot dogs and 50kg of paella.

And 160 food and beverage staff serving along 45m of bar frontage.

“There will be around 35,000 people at the Fleetwood Mac concerts on 19 and 20 December and we’re making sure the food and beverage service goes smoothly,” says Eurest spokesman Craig Elder.

“The largest bar – which will be hard to miss at 18m long – will be at the back of Bowl to help with traffic flow, but overall there’ll be four food and beverage areas and four bars.

“We’ll have beer, wine, soft drinks and coffee available as well as food ranging from vegetarian options to doughnuts.

“It’ll be a couple of very busy nights but we’re ready to help make the concerts an amazing experience for the audience.”

Fleetwood Mac fans are travelling to the Bowl from the USA, Australia, the UK and Ireland, with two-thirds of concert-goers coming from outside the region.

Air New Zealand is putting on six additional flights that weekend to transport visitors to and from the district. There are 10,000 extra travellers expected by car via SH3 from the north, and 10,000 extra via SH3 from the south

A train from Wellington will bring 450 people to the city on Saturday evening with the visitors leaving directly after the concert.

NPDC Manager Customer Services Cathy Thurston says there are 170 volunteers so far for the Fleetwood Mac weekend to help visitors with information and advice.

“However we need 105,000 ambassadors for the region,” she says.

“Every one of us can play a part in helping the 25,000 visitors from outside Taranaki have an incredible experience here, which will encourage them to come back for future events.”

Ms Thurston says the logistics around the Fleetwood Mac weekend are challenging, but the businesses and organisations involved are preparing well.

“This will be one of the largest weekends the TSB Bowl of Booklands has ever had, and certainly one of the largest for our hospitality sector.

“Apart from anything else, these preparations for the Fleetwood Mac weekend will be a great dress rehearsal for other big events that are coming up, including the All Blacks vs Ireland test match next year, and the Rugby World Cup 2011.”