Organisers hail Robbie Williams Mission Concert a success
Organisers of the Mission Estate Winery Concert, which saw Robbie Williams perform twice over the weekend, are hailing it a success.
Close to 25,000 people attended each night on Saturday and Sunday.
Mission Estate Winery Concert Event Director Garry Craft said it went "really really well".
"This one was certainly spectacular in the sense of its production and the way their production team and Robbie put the show together. It was certainly up there with the good ones."
Hawke’s Bay Police report that concert-goers were on the whole very well-behaved and the event went without a hitch.
"A handful of arrests were made for minor offending (four arrests on Saturday, one on Sunday), with no further action required," a police spokeswoman said.
Debra Larsen, Hato Hone St John General Manager, Ambulance Operations – Health Services, said they provided first aid and clinical treatment at both shows.
"We had a light workload with 88 patients on Saturday requiring onsite assessment and treatment for minor ailments including small cuts, dehydration and sprains with the most common being stings and blisters, as is typical at an event of this magnitude.
"Patient numbers and treatment for ailments were similar for the event on Sunday. Overall, it was a very well-managed and safe event, with only ten patients requiring transportation to hospital in a minor to serious condition across both nights."
A woman in her 60s suffered a heart attack and was airlifted to Wellington Regional Hospital by the Lowe Corporation Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter on Saturday evening.
Robbie Williams performed two shows at the Mission Estate Winery over the weekend. Photo/Instagram - Robbie Williams.
First staged in 1993 the Mission Concert has featured Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Ray Charles, Kenny Rogers, Dionne Warwick, Shirley Bassey, Julio Iglesias and the Beach Boys.
A new era of concert presentation commenced in 2003 with SEL taking up the producer’s role for future Mission Concerts. The first artist to appear under this new agreement was Sir Cliff Richard, before welcoming the likes of John Farnham, Rod Stewart, Olivia Newton-John, Eric Clapton, Carole King and Barry Gibb, just to name a few.
For Craft, what sets the concert apart from others is the venue, without question.
"I mean, it's a fantastic venue. The shape of it, how it works, its location in Hawke's Bay - there's a whole bunch of things that make it. It's very much the venue."
"We try to choose artists that suit the demographic and suit the venue and keep it balanced. We don't have a lot of concerts, on average one a year, so that's all part of it. As you know, we don't do a lot of concerts like other venues that roll them through all the time," Craft says.
While nothing is set in stone, Craft says the search to find the next artist to headline the event is ongoing.
"Look, we're constantly working on and talking to agents and artists and key industry people to find a suitable artist. We have a particular criteria, so it's just ongoing. It never stops. We have no timeline for that. It's only once we know who the artist is, that there's an announcement. But at this time there's no timeline."
