Town Hall to be promoter

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 9

Town Hall to be promoter

The Christchurch Town Hall must become a promoter of events if its facilities are to be fully used, says its manager, Mr Ray Sleeman.

While the Town Hall had successfully played the role of landlord, this would not be sufficient. By taking an entrepreneurial role and promoting events there would be benefits for the Town Hall’s box office, restaurant, coffee bar, theatre, bars, and function rooms, he said. The recent concerts given by the U.S.S.R. State Symphony Orchestra generated business worth $12,167 besides the $9758 rental for the auditorium, Mr Sleeman said. The Town Hall’s Board of Management yesterday approved in principle a proposal to extend its entrepreneurial activities to include promoting a Christchurch festival with a significant involvement of the Town Hall. The board also recom-

mended that the Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, and Mr Sleeman meet their Auckland counterparts to discuss a link to promote events in both cities. Mr Sleeman told the board that the Town Hall had expanded its entrepreneurial role in the last two years. Last year 12 events were promoted and this year the figure would be about 20. When the proposed Aotea Centre in Auckland was completed in 1988 it aimed to promote about 50 per cent of all events at the centre, he said.

If the Town Hall does become involved in promoting the Christchurch festival Mr Sleeman has proposed creating a fund of at least $1 million from four to eight to national companies. The interest from this fund could be used to underwrite international events both during and outside the festival period. This would benefit both

the Town Hall and the festival, which had difficulty providing funding to support its administrative functions, he said. Board members were enthusiastic about the proposed festival promotion and the link with Auckland’s Aotea Centre, although it was pointed out that the Town Hall could not take responsibility for events held in other venues.

The board’s chairman, Sir Hamish Hay, said that

if the board was not careful other centres would take the initiative in promoting their own festival activities. The board also rejected recent criticism of the prices of tickets for cultural events at the Town Hall. A letter from the Christchurch City Council said that a number of people had been concerned about the high prices for seats at concerts given by the

Soviet symphony orchestra. Mr Sleeman said that the Town Hall had no say in the prices for these tickets, and he did not agree with a comment in the letter that there had been many empty seats at the concerts. At $49, the price compared favourably with the cost of tickets for other concerts at the Town Hall and abroad. He said seats at a concert by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa had cost $75.