Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Tim Watsford from NT Major Events gives us the run down on the NRL match in the Territory, Bass in the Grass (sold out) and the other Dry Season calendar events

Transcript

Tim Watsford from NT Major Events gives us the run down on the NRL match in the Territory, Bass in the Grass (sold out) and the other Dry Season calendar events · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I tell you what, if you are a rugby league fan,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: you would be absolutely frothing that the NRL is here
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: on the weekend. And joining me in the studio right
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: now is the CEO of NT Major Events, Tim Watsford.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning Katie. How are you very well?
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: How are you more like it?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: You all organized for the weekend?
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah we are. There are a few weary eyes
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: around the building. I'll give you the tip, but no
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: venues in great shape. Old Paramatter obviously came through yesterday,
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: had an amazing signing session down at Mindor Markets with
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: thousands of people queuing up, which was which is awesome
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: way to launch the markets front of the year. And
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: now they're out about doing their community activation. Hopefully the
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Mighty Years get to win tomorrow.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Well I'm hoping the Cowboys will actually Yeah, the Queen's
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: North Queensland are born in the Heartland as well bound Eza.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: It doesn't get much more Queenslander than that. Good ess,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: So I'm hoping that the Cowboys get up. But well
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: are they here at the have they already arrived?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Both teams down without their last night big thanks to
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: the guys that they are Old they'd amazing job. When
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: they come up, they spend some time getting in and
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: amongst the community, both eels and the cows. But yeah,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: they're here, they're doing their thing. They've got the captains
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: runs today, doing all they've got to do to prep And.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Is it a sellout already, tim or are there a
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: few tickets left?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: No?
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's not a Sorry, it's not a sellout, that's
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: for sure. There's tickets available now online at ticketmaster dot
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: com and also they'll be available at the gate. I'm
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: just stressing to everyone that wants to listen, please please
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: buy early. There were some cues last year that caused
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: some delay and entries just based on the Mighty Broncos
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: drawing a crowd. But look, to be honest, we're raiming
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: for hopefully that ten thousand marks. So it's going to
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: be fun.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, becausey and you can actually like when you purchase
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: your tickets then it's on your phone, like it's much
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: easier to get in.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: You're not dealing with ticket boxes. Like I said, they
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: will be available at the gate. It's easy. It's actually
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: five bucks cheap to be honest to buy online before,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: so it's an extra five bucks at the gate. So
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: if you are coming out, regardless if you're buying a
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: ticket at the gate or not, get there early because
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: I just want to make sure everyone is really sure.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: That's going to be cute.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: So about ten thousand Mad Footy fans, it's going to
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: be great.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: You and I for fans within, yeah.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: We.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Speak for yourself.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Now, I know that you guys have got so much
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: like that. You're getting organized for now in the dry season.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: What's next after the NRL.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Look, we've got some really really good news that's come
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: through over night. Base in the Grass is now sold
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: out officially at sixteen thousand people. There's literally a handful
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: of tickets left for a boat package. Jump online if
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: you want to snap them up. It's kind of a
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: VP offering at basinograss, dot com, dot you. But that's
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: beyond the record. Those that for those listeners at home,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: were playing last year fourteen thousand.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Last year we got through.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: The guys have worked their bums off, so to speak,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: to increase the capacity and now.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: We're sold out at six day and so six three
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: weeks time, three weeks tomorrow.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: That's fantastic and everything going pretty smoothly in terms of,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: you know, the organization for base, Yeah.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: It is is. We've got some great engagement of the
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: lineup's mental. The guys have done great job. Obviously you're
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: setting that up and now we're just putting the finishing
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: touches on. So all the lessons that we've learned over
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: the previous years in terms of moving from Amphitheater to
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: mindle I Reckon, we've nailed. So from a presentation perspective,
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: top notch. All the activations we're activating the beach, We've
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: got a whole bunch of stuff going on. Have a
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: look at basinograss dot com dot au to find out
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: what you can do. But it's gonna be pretty special
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: and even I'll be quite honest, the operational person looking
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: at the rain this late in the n is going
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: to make it nice and green. So the grass part
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: of base in the grass will be there down at Mendo. Yeah,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: it's gonna be a pick. We're all excited it will be.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: It'll be fantastic.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: And then it doesn't stop there well well and truly
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: keeps going along. What else have we got on for
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the dry season.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: So a couple of weeks after Base two AFL games
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: that we play a hand in.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Obviously they're delivered by our friends at AFL.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: In Tea, but the Sun's coming up to do a
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: double game in late May through the Doug Nickles around
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: would be awesome, so they'll be there'll be two blockbusters.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Then we're in the supercars, which is also going to
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: hopefully be some big announcements around tickets where we're expecting
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: a big, big crowd for that. The top fuelers from
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: a drag perspective, draw quite a lot on their own.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: It is the official Indigenous round. I've been lucky enough
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: to see some of the sneak peaks that are coming
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: through from an on car livery perspective, and the teams
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: are really getting behind it. So that's a mixture of
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: artwork from both where the teams are based all across
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: the AAS and C board, but also there are some
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: teams that are picking up Larrakia artists.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: It's awesome, So that's gonna be amazing.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: Then we kind of duck our heads for a little
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: bit watch the festival's roll around a little bit. We've
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: just released quite a number of festivals on behalf of
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: government to get a look of cash this year through
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: our grant funding program, so that to be fun and
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: then we're down back in the center for Red Center
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: ats to close up good stuff September.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: There is so much happening and the dry season is
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: an amazing time. How has it been for you guys?
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I know that there are a lot of businesses that
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: are finding it a bit tougher when it comes to
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the staffing shortages and things like that. From an NT
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: major events perspective, does that have much of an impact
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: or are you pretty right because you know you've got
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: everything in place and you just go from there.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: No, No, it does.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: We obviously rely on a variety of local businesses to
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: deliver our events. We are a relative nimble and small
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: team that will coordinate. But for example, we've got bar operators,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: we've got activation people that will be down, we've got security,
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: we've got everyone. From a base perspective that we need
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: to lean on that they're finding it hard, There's there's
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: no way of getting around that. They're confident though, so
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: all our contractors are really really happy with how it's progressing,
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: and we're starting to see a bit of a flow
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: on now just from a backpack piece as an example,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: I'm starting to fill up. They're going to cover themselves
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: in glitter, as I spoke to some people this morning
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: for Carl Cox on Sundays, so they'll stick around hopefully
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: for a couple of months.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: But it looks I'm not going to lie. It's a challenge,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: but yeah, we're confident we're going to deliver a really
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: good product. Oh good stuff.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Will all the best for the weekend for the NRL
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: and then of course for Base in the Grass. That
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: is fantastic news that it's now sold out sixteen thousand tickets.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: So that is a record breaking ticket sales, isn't it?
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: It is?
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: And the good thing about it, I guess from a
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: really national perspective, we went on this journey a couple
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: of years ago to put it on the national Festival
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: calendar lineup to make compete with Falls Festival or Groove
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: in the Moves, and we're actually beating those numbers now,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: so it's well and truly up there. We've got our
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: eyes on Spinder if I'm really honest, to see if
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: we can try and hit fifty thousand. Of people in
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: the office are probably watering their eyes at the moment.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: But now because it is, and it's a cemented now
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: as part of the National Festival calendar.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Soon grow. It's amazing.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good stuff. Well done to you and your team.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I know it's a busy time for you guys. I
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: know quite a few of the team in there, and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I know they work bloody hard, so yeah they do.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Good on your team. Thanks so much for your time
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie,