New fund to lure major concerts, events to NZ set to be announced

Monday, 8 September 2025

The Government is poised to announce a new fund it’s hoped could lure more major events, including large-scale concerts and festivals, to New Zealand, The Post understands.

The new contestable fund comes off the back of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon calling for a “total rethink” of New Zealand’s events pipeline, with a desire to model the country on the Australian state of Victoria.

“It’s really important that we are competitive, that we are able to attract major events to New Zealand,” Luxon said at Monday afternoon’s post-Cabinet press conference.

“It’s really important for economic activity, economic development, regional economic development.”

Luxon said he would have more to say “shortly” but that it was no surprise he wanted to expand major events funding.

During a state of the nation address in January, Luxon declared that New Zealand needed “more concerts” focused on economic growth.

Industry sources say the fund will initially be for one year, though it’s hoped that, if it proves successful, it could be made recurrent and not just a single sugar hit.

Luxon wouldn’t disclose further details of the scheme, but The Post understands the Government was initially expected inject $5 million into the fund but that it was now likely to be larger.

“Potentially” $10m, according to one insider, who welcomed the impending announcement.

While it will be a centrally funded scheme, it will still require input from local councils as is already the case with live events. Cities are often required to pay millions upfront to secure them, usually years in advance.

Currently, event promoters have access to the Major Events Fund, a $60m cash pool available to help large-scale events.

But while the Major Events Fund supports events that deliver economic benefit to New Zealand, concerts and musical festivals are excluded.

The new fund, while still being available to other events such as sporting fixtures, won’t be off-limits to major music events.

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited boss Annie Dundas told The Post that stadium-level events help bring in visitors from not only outside the city where they’re held, but the country.

“Looking at Coldplay, we know that 10% of those that came to Coldplay came from Australia,” she said.

“Now that is significant because it was 160,000 tickets sold. And we're starting to see more interest from Australia in our concerts and some of our sporting [events] - you know, we've got A-League now, NRL … that is driving a bit of Trans-Tasman traffic, which is really positive.”

The new fund was originally due to be announced last week, it’s understood, with plans for Tourism Minister Louise Upston to unveil it at an industry conference in Hamilton.

However, this was scrapped to allow for the prime minister to make the announcement himself - a sign that the Government is increasingly aware of the value of live events.

That’s despite throwing cold water on Auckland mayor Wayne Brown’s plan for a new bed tax in the super city, saying that there were other ways to help fund events.

Brown previously told The Post that losing out on major events to Australia was “symptomatic of the lack of sustainable funding options available” and would continue to happen “until the Government helps with a long-term solution”.

Layton Lillas from the New Zealand Promoters Association was pleased the Government was acknowledging the benefit live events can bring to a town or city.

“To bring an event to Palmerston North or to Hamilton - every time a major event comes to these towns, the amount of people it puts through the cafes, the amount of room nights that are sold in the hotels … the overall net benefit to the city is huge,” he said.

“Yet there's never any sort of thought that that the council should contribute to that or be thankful for that. You know, that's part of what keeps the CBDs of cities alive.”

He hoped that any new funding wouldn’t “just go straight to Live Nation so they can bring Taylor Swift” to New Zealand.

“I hope it's something that kind of has a few layers to it. Otherwise, probably it will be snaffled up by a major festival [or] a major act, but I don't know the details.”

Over the last 18 months, a long list of major performers have opted to skip New Zealand on their Australian tours. Along with Swift, it includes Lady Gaga, Oasis, Billie Eilish and Green Day.