Red Hot Summer Tour key in events lead recovery says mayor

Major musical names are coming to town in March in a move leaders hope will give the economy a much-needed boost.

It’s hoped Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins and Bernard Fanning will revitalise tourism when they visit Mildura in March.

This week it was confirmed that Red Hot Summer Tour would be hosted at Mildura Recreation Reserve, an announcement Mildura mayor Liam Wood hoped would be a valuable step in the region’s events-led recovery.

“While the event was never in doubt, it’s great to see a venue confirmed and promotion continuing for what is such an important event for our region as we continue to recover from the impacts of Murray River flooding,” Mr Wood said.

Mildura Rural City Council Mayor Liam Wood,. April 26 2022.

The event needed to be moved from Nowingi Place as it is currently still inaccessible due to the floods.

Mr Woods said the tourism sector was “among the worst hit by floods, which came at what would normally be one of [the] region’s busiest times of the year in terms of visitor number, leading to just a fraction of the tens of thousands we would normally welcome”.

“The timing of this news couldn’t be better as we work hard to crank up our economy again leading into the traditionally busy Easter period,” he said.

Many local businesses suffered massive losses over the Christmas period even before taking into account the damage floodwaters caused to riverside businesses.

The dockside cafe has lost nearly $1 million in revenue, and Mildura house boats also encountered similar losses.

That is before taking into account the losses to the agricultural sector, with one local grower Joe Callipari saying that he lost around $200k of wine.

Dockside Cafe owner Sean Bowley said the losses would extend outside of riverfront business and agriculture.

The red hot summer tour will now be hosted at the Mildura Recreation Reserve as the normal venue at Nowingi Place is still currently inaccessible. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“There are places as far back as Fifteenth St that took a hit. Even service stations and places like Sunraysia Marine would have seen losses,” he said.

Mr Woods acknowledged these effects but said Mildura was well-placed to recover.

“Our ability to attract and successfully host large-scale events, reinforced last year with a string of high-profile major sporting and music events, including the massive Kings of Leon performance, will be central to our economic recovery.

“As was proven in 2022 with the SummerSalt festival in March, which attracted about 4,000 people, and Kings of Leon later in the year with between 10,000 and 15,000, these types of events are major drawcards for visitors, and not just from nearby towns. We had visitors from metropolitan areas well.

“These visitors spend money on accommodation, on dining out, in our retail sector, our small businesses and our tourism operators, such as paddleboat operators, which are about to get underway again.

He added that while the economic benefits of major events were a given, they were also a morale boost.

“We know from working with our partner agencies in the recovery process that there are quite a few people in our region doing it tough at the moment as a result of the stresses caused by the flood event,” he said.

“Providing a chance for our community to come together and let their hair down while taking in some of the biggest music acts in the country is a great way to help in this regard.”