The closure of two earthquake prone venues in Nelson has left event organisers scrambling to secure alternative locations at late notice.
The city’s main events venue, the Trafalgar Centre, was closed by Nelson City Council in early December due to a high chance of loss of life should a moderate earthquake occur while it was in use. The Nelson School of Music has since suffered a similar fate, closing to public use until earthquake-strengthening work has been completed.
With both venues out of action, full calendars of pre booked events are now out in the cold and that’s putting pressure on other locations. Stu Dalton, Theatre Royal marketing and box office manager, says they’ve already come to the rescue of two events but that he doubted many more would be so lucky.
“Because we have such a high community usage, we are quite full and we only have a few dates available. Luckily for the promoters who were booked at those two venues we had it available, but only by chance and luck. As we go through the year, I doubt we’ll have availability.”
Sports Tasman facility manager Brent Maru says they are working “flat out” with the NCC to see how they can accommodate events that were booked at the Trafalgar Centre.
“We’re all of a sudden faced with a whole lot of bookings that are foreign to us. We’re working really hard on how this can work.”
Two of those events currently in talks with the council over moving their events to the stadium are the Canterbury Tactix netball team and the Fight 4 Victory charity boxing event.
The Tactix were booked in at the Trafalgar Centre for its Round 11 ANZ Championship clash against the Central Pulse.
Netball Mainland CEO Brigit Hearn, who was in Nelson yesterday to attend a meeting with the council, says she was hopeful Nelson would still host the game. “It’s certainly our strong desire to retain the game in Nelson if at all possible. We are very keen and eager to work collaboratively with the council in terms of making that happen and Saxton is certainly an option we are exploring.”
Paul Hampden, one of the organisers of the Fight 4 Victory boxing event says they are still looking at alternative venues for it, along with the Joseph Parker fight that was originally scheduled for late March.
“We had a date for end of March but the closure makes it difficult to stick to that date. But we still feel positive that it will go ahead.”
Other events scheduled at the Trafalgar Centre this year were Nelson Globetrotters, Stage Challenge, Nelson Bridal Expo and the Cat Show.
