Tasmania will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for Foo Fighters to play a stadium show next month, but the boss of Stadiums Tasmania says the band is not coming here to make money.
On Wednesday morning, the lauded American rock band announced it would play York Park Stadium in Launceston on Saturday, January 24.
It is the only Australian show the band has announced, and it comes on the day Tasmania’s upper house is voting on an order to approve the Hobart stadium at Macquarie Point.
Tickets for the Foo Fighters’ Launceston show will go on sale later this week. (Supplied)
The show will also be played during the 20th anniversary year of the Beaconsfield mine collapse, which trapped Brant Webb and Todd Russell underground for two weeks.
Among their supplies for the ordeal, the men requested iPods loaded with Foo Fighters songs, and after being rescued, they met the band on several occasions.
But Stadiums Tasmania boss James Avery says while the Hobart stadium and the mine disaster anniversary are relevant to the deal struck with the Foo Fighters, they were not central factors.
Tasmania paying for ‘different breed’ of band
Mr Avery said the Tasmanian government and the Launceston City Council are paying $650,000 for Foo Fighters to play in January, with $500,000 coming from the state and $150,000 from the council.
Launceston mayor Matthew Garwood is a big fan of the band. (ABC News: Emily Smith)
He also said it will likely cost the state an additional “couple hundred thousand dollars” to put on the event, but the exact cost is not yet known.
“We’ll know what that is when we get to the end of the process, and we’ll be making that available publicly,” he said.
When pressed about how Tasmanians may be surprised that it did not cost more to secure such a high-profile band, Mr Avery said the band was “very unique” and that this was simply “something they do from time to time”.
“The band is not undertaking this to make money,” he said, adding that he believed it was a very good deal for Tasmania.
Foo Fighters are 15-time Grammy award winners, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. (Supplied)
“They have a history of and really have a focus on playing in regions and locations that don’t get large-scale events like this,” he said.
“They’re a different breed in that sense.”
Dave Grohl on Sesame Street is the pure moment we need right now
In announcing the show, promoter Frontier Touring said the band previously put on a “blistering, history-making performance” in the Victorian city of Geelong in 2022.
“The band have a history of delivering jaw-dropping surprise performances,” the announcement read.
Mr Avery said the band wanted to do something like that again, and Launceston was on their radar.
“Launceston doesn’t get events like this; Tassie doesn’t get events like this. And the more we looked into it the more the band liked it.”
The concert will be held at UTAS Stadium, also known as York Park, in Launceston. (Austadiums.com)
Launceston City Council mayor Matthew Garwood confirmed the $150,000 stake in the show, and said he expected a great return on investment for the city.
“I would recommend absolutely if you’re looking at tickets, looking at your accommodation, look where you’re going to go out and don’t leave it until the last minute,” he said.
“But we will absolutely handle this in the best way we can because we just see it as such an incredible opportunity for the city and the state.”
20th anniversary of mine collapse
Mr Webb — who has met the band backstage after Australian shows several times since being rescued — said he was excited about the show but did not have any warning.
“I think it’s fantastic. We seem to get missed out by a lot of bands down here,” he said.
Brant Webb was trapped underground for two weeks after an earthquake caused a mine collapse in Tasmania. (ABC/Docker Media)
“They do the circuit on the mainland, but they just don’t jump across that bit of water, do they?”
He said he hoped the band would play “the ballad”, but was unsure whether they would be able to get an orchestra involved to do it justice.
The Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners appeared on the Foo Fighters’ 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.
Foo Fighters wrote a song dedicated to the trapped miners. (ABC News)
In a fax message for the miners while they were underground, Foo Fighters lead singer Dave Grohl offered to get a beer with them and offered tickets to the band’s shows anywhere in the world.
However, although April 25, 2026, marks 20 years since the mine collapse, Mr Webb said he did not think the show was necessarily intended to mark the anniversary.
Mr Avery said he hoped the band was able to reconnect with Mr Webb and Mr Russell while they are in Launceston.
Claims that large concerts more likely with Hobart stadium
He also said the deal had come about in only the past two months after discussions with national concert promoters, which he said were becoming more frequent “as excitement builds” around the Hobart stadium proposal.
Mr Avery was asked whether it was realistic to expect other bands to want to play in Tasmania, given what he said about Foo Fighters being unusual in their enthusiasm for putting on stadium shows in regional places without the promise of a profit.
What concerts could look like at Hobart’s proposed stadium
“The Mac Point stadium provides a totally different economic playing field,” he said.
“It means we can enter conversations with large acts like this on a far more regular basis.”
He said the Launceston show will have a capacity of about 24,000 people, while about 40,000 people will be able fit in the Hobart stadium during “concert mode”, when attendees can crowd onto the playing surface.
The capacity of the proposed Macquarie Point stadium will increase during concerts, when partrons will be permitted to stand on the grounds. (Supplied: MPDC)
The government has previously been criticised for justifying the stadium plans by claiming it could attract large, international acts to Tasmania.
Former music promoter sceptical of stadium’s pulling power
In 2023, Charles Touber, the tour promoter previously responsible for bringing Foo Fighters to Tasmania, said claims about concerts at the proposed stadium did not stack up.
Mr Touber said he believed it was not financially viable for touring companies to travel to Hobart, even with a 23,000-seat roofed stadium.
Mr Avery denied the Foo Fighters show was designed to promote the Hobart stadium proposal, but that “the two certainly aren’t divorced”.
“Whilst this is a very rare occurrence … they will certainly be less rare if the Mac Point project comes online.”
A render of the proposed Macquarie Point stadium on Hobart’s waterfront. (Supplied: MPDC)
Tickets for January 24 show to go on sale soon
Mr Avery said tickets to the show would be priced in a “very competitive” tiered structure from under $100 to about $200 for front-row seats.
“We’ve been very focused, as has the band and Frontier Touring, to make sure this is affordable and accessible for all Tasmanians,” he said.
Foo Fighters will play one Australian show next month, in Launceston
“Comparatively to other artists currently touring Australia, some of those big, top-line artists, this is significantly cheaper.”
In a video posted to Facebook on Wednesday morning, Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said the show would be “Tassie’s biggest concert ever”.
Government Minister Eric Abetz said he expected the state’s investment to have a significant return.
“We can expect an influx of Australians from all around our country coming to Tasmania,” he said.
Frontier Touring and Foo Fighters management have been approached for further comment.
