Are you a hipster or a hater on the Lang Park – sorry Suncorp Stadium – live concert quota issue?
Unless you've been hiding under a wall of amps in the last few days, you'd be aware that Oz rock immortals, AC/DC will play at QE2 Stadium –sorry, ANZ Stadium – sorry, Queensland Sport And Athletic Centre– in November.
The promoter's first choice of Suncorp is unavailable due to the maximum quota of four live concerts having already been reached for 2015. Yep, we didn't know about that cap, either.
The alternate venue, the QSAACCAAAC-something-something at Nathan on Brisbane's southside is 14kms by road from the CBD. There are moves afoot to lobby the government to increase the quota to allow a greater number of concerts to the central Milton venue, which primarily hosts round and egg football games almost year-round.
Robbie Williams was the first concert at Suncorp Stadium in 2006A straw poll at scenestr HQ revealed we comprised equal parts hipster and hater. Which are you? (Poll at the bottom of this article).
For the sake of this article, a hipster is defined as believing every damn thing that happens in a city of upwards of 2 million people must be crammed into a 500-freaking-metre radius of the general post office.
The two-finger salute to the guaranteed traffic chaos, not just to the entire commuting population, but especially to locals trying to go about their lives, the puking in gardens, the pissing in pot plants and all the rest – the only critical concern for hipster millenials is the ability to see a 60,000 capacity venue, or preferably reach out and touch it, from a shitty 1m x 1m fume-infested balcony.
But we were equally well represented by haters. Either killjoys unable to suffer a modicum of pain for the greater cultural good or dinosaurs who can't wrap their minds around the concept of life without the motor vehicle. Exactly what is the point of going to a concert if you can't make a trip of it? Getting there is half the fun, right?
There is of course a commercial aspect. The Caxton Street Development Association representing traders in the Suncorp Stadium precinct are lobbying hard to overturn the quota. We spoke with President, Sarosh Mehta yesterday after a round of press and radio interviews and he said the quota was put in a long time ago and he says it's time to change that.
Mehta said he wanted the money generated from patrons spending either side of a concert to go back into the inner-city. "We have the transport infrastructure to cope with it – ANZ doesn't have that infrastructure."
Above all, he encouraged people to participate in the discussion by visiting the government's website seeking public feedback on the issue:
Get Involved Website
