Merrigong hopes Guy Sebastian will draw other big names to Wollongong Town Hall
Community events such as the Lady Mayoress Afternoon Tea Dance will still have a place at Wollongong Town Hall, though the space will soon be able to cater for big concerts on par with Sydney’s Enmore Theatre. Picture: Robert Peet
Merrigong Theatre Company is hoping Guy Sebastian’s upcoming concert at Wollongong Town Hall will be a drawcard for other national and international artists to book the venue.
The hall is undergoing some upgrades in sound, lighting, staging and seating capacity in order for national and international acts to take it seriously – such as acts suited to Sydney’s Enmore Theatre.
“We’re getting back into the game, we’re going to be making improvements to the venue stage by stage,” Merrigong’s programme manager strategic and commercial, Kristopher McDowell said. “It’s going to be a major spot on the touring calendar.”
In March, superstar comedian Jimmy Carr performed to a near capacity crowd – pre-sound and lighting alterations – so Sebastian will be the big test, McDowell said.
“That was a really good sign. We thought ‘yep, if we can do that with a stand-up comedian we can handle it … we just have to step it up an extra level for music’,” he said.
Giant drapes have been ordered for the stage to dress it up and hide the organ for concerts such as pop and rock which may not suit the feature. Picture: Robert Peet
Sebastian, a part-time Gerroa resident, will kick-off his extensive regional tour at the town hall on 9 Jun, a feat which Merrigong had been negotiating since last November.
“It hasn’t been really open for this kind of concert for a very long time,” former Australian Idol Sebastian said.
It’s been decades since the walls were shook all night long to the likes of AC/DC and Sherbet, but McDowell is confident that will happen again.
“It needs to be commercially viable but still accessible to the community and that’s the biggest challenge. You want to be able to serve two levels,” he said. “[We just want] to put it on the map.”
Merrigong has nearly secured three more big-name musicians for the venue, though McDowell said they were not ready yet to announce who they were.
The plan is for eight to nine large-scale concerts in 2019, intertwined with regular chamber music and symphonies, Wollongong City Council events like ComicGong, and smaller scale variety nights aimed at nurturing the arts like Made From Scratch.
ROCK ON: Merrigong has employed an acoustitian to work out how Wollongong Town Hall will accommodate orchestral and commercial rock concerts. Picture: Georgia Matts
McDowell’s role with the not-for-profit theatre company was created in 2017 specifically to help grow an already diverse artistic programme.
This announcement comes as the company gears up for the opening of its second Spiegeltent season.
From 12 Apr to 6 May 2019, the temporary venue – an antique mirrored big-top – hosted shows every day which range from the cabaret circus act Limbo, children’s production Barrel of Monkeys, comedians like Peter Helliar and Tom Gleeson, and local acts like So Popera and Circus Monoxide.
Click here to find out more about upcoming shows.