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Eden Park abandons Waitangi Day charity concert

Author
NZ Herald / Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 26 Jul 2018, 3:44PM
Eden Park has abandoned the Waitangi Day charity concert.

Eden Park abandons Waitangi Day charity concert

Author
NZ Herald / Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 26 Jul 2018, 3:44PM

Eden Park has been forced to withdraw from holding the "Million Babies" LifePod Appeal concert.

The Eden Park Trust announced this afternoon that due to time constraints and the prospect of substantial Environment Court costs, it has been forced to cancel the concert, planned for Waitangi Day.

At the start of the week, the Trust's lawyers advised that the process to obtain a consent for the concert was likely to stretch beyond October and cost in excess of $750,000, not including The Trust's legal costs.

Trustees then had a meeting and concluded that it is not viable for the stadium to continue with its application due to the likely costs and timeframe for court proceedings.

The Trust hoped it could work with the minority who objected to reach an agreement for this one-off worthy event. This would have avoided the Environment Court process but unfortunately, that was not to be the case.

Chief Executive Nick Sautner said, "Although we respect the process in place, to bring events like concerts to our stadium we also have to work in with promoters' lead times which include confirming the venue as well as securing ticket on-sale dates."

"Unfortunately this time it was unworkable but we now look to the future to ensure this half a billion dollar asset can host unique and memorable events for the city."

Plans for the Live Aid-style concert were announced by Sir Ray Avery, a former New Zealander of the Year, in the hopes of raising money in an effort to help save babies around the world.

Avery wants to build enough LifePod incubators to save a million babies and the concert was the first step in raising the $4 million needed to make 2000 pods.

Hundreds of people made submissions on whether the concert should be allowed to go ahead, with some local residents posting strong criticism, most notably former Prime Minister Helen Clark.

The trust's application for the Million Babies event, lodged on June 6, said noise levels during the concert, between 7pm and 10.30pm on Waitangi Day, could exceed 75 decibels for about 30 houses west of Sandringham Rd and 80 decibels for another small group of houses near the northwest corner of the park.

Consultation with the community included making its environmental planners, traffic, acoustic and lighting specialists available to address any concerns as well as bringing locals together through stadium tours, a 'Friday Family Fish 'n' Chips' evening and other events to inspire open conversation and share the recent independent research.

LISTEN ABOVE AS ANDREW DICKENS SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON THE EDEN PARK CHARITY CONCERT BEING CANCELLED

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