Standing ticket holders angry at being shut out of indoor stadium facilities

Sunday, 17 May 2026

The concourse was crowded at times during the Once in Lifetime concert at One New Zealand stadium on Saturday.

Concert goers are upset at having to queue outside for portable toilets, and to buy food and drink at the inaugural concert at Christchurch’s new stadium.

Thousands of people who purchased standing tickets to Saturday’s Once in a Lifetime concert were denied access to toilets and food vendors inside the stadium, including on the main concourse.

Many have taken to social media to express their disappointment.

Stadium operators are also considering whether they need to build an external temporary precinct for the All Blacks game in July, to cater for the additional 5000 people who will be in the stadium’s temporary stand - which increased the project’s cost by $50 million in 2021.

Christchurch resident Liz Crawshaw said she went to the stadium open day and was impressed with the facilities inside the stadium including the concourse, but she had no idea that buying standing general admission tickets to Once in a Lifetime would prevent her from using them.

People with standing tickets were funnelled into the stadium via two gates at either end of the stadium. They had access to food trucks, a bar and portable toilets at each end, but these were all outdoors.

People who bought standing general admission tickets were denied access to inside toilets and food options.

There were big queues for drinks, and concert goers have also reported long queues for the outside toilets and at the food trucks. There was also no protection if it rained.

Crawshaw said access to the concourse and toilets within the stadium was blocked off.

She bypassed the drinks stand because the queue was too long and came back later, when it was smaller, but still had to wait for up to 10 minutes.

“It was just a bit of a disappointing experience, having seen the stadium at the open day and expecting to have access to all those facilities.”

Crawshaw said it needed to be made clear when people purchased tickets that those with standing tickets were not allowed into any other part of the stadium.

Venues Ōtautahi chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare says external toilets and food options are needed during concerts because the stadium is designed to cater for 25,000 people.

However, despite this, she said she still enjoyed the concert itself.

Venues Ōtautahi (VŌ) chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare said the venue was designed to cater for 25,000 people and when you add in an extra 12,000 for a concert, temporary external facilities had to be built to cater for those numbers.

She said it was the first time the venue had 37,000 people in it and VŌ would now look at whether it could allow more people to access the services inside without adding too much pressure and making it an unpleasant experience for everyone.

“If we can safely accommodate more access inside the venue, we will.”

Harvie-Teare said she was not sure exactly what communication about the facilities went out to standing ticket holders, but would make sure in the future that people knew exactly what they were buying.

“If that is a surprise, then that’s not a great experience especially if you expected something different.”

VŌ would also be considering if it could accommodate the additional 5000 people going to the All Blacks game in July, inside the stadium or if it needed to build an external temporary precinct.

Harvie-Teare said they were also looking at rain protection options in places where people queued.