Eager fans snap up March 4 Geelong Foo Fighters tickets
The Foo Fighters’ Geelong gig had thousands of fans racing to claim their seats as social media shed light on the lucky – and not so lucky – among them.
Geelong
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Tickets for the Foo Fighters’ Geelong concert have sold out, less than an hour after going on sale.
The band will be playing in Geelong on March 4, and tickets for the gig went on sale on Friday afternoon.
Within an hour of the noon sale going live, tickets for the GMHBA Stadium concert were completely snapped up.
Fans took to social media to share their victories and experiences of being in a long queue on the Ticketmaster website.
One person wrote on Twitter: “Ending the week on a high, @foofighters tickets locked in! Let’s gooooo.”
Another said: “I got my @foofighters tickets!!!! *screams in delight*”
Yet another fan said: “Holy f--- I’m seeing the Foo Fighters in Geelong of all places in a week bye”.
Other fans weren’t so lucky, with one sharing their pessimism about securing tickets.
“19,870 people in front of me in the queue at 12 noon on the dot, what do you think my chances are,” they wrote on Twitter.
Event organisers Frontier Touring said it was a big moment for the show to sell out.
“It’s the first stadium show by any international artist performed in Australia since the Covid pandemic first hit back in March 2020,” they said.
“See you lucky ticket holders there!”
Frontier said the state government had officially declared the show as a “major event”, meaning it was illegal for scalpers to sell tickets for more than 10 per cent of the retail value.
“This is a win for live music big shows,” Frontier said.
“(The government) have never declared a Frontier show as such before.”
Foo Fighters will come to Geelong on March 4 for an ‘Always Live’, one-night-only event.
The band’s supporting acts will include Amyl and The Sniffers, and The Meanies.
WHY FOO FIGHTERS SUPERFAN HAD A ‘SIXTH SENSE’ ABOUT TOUR RUMOURS
February 25
Foo Fighters mega fan Kristy Brdar has seen the band live more than ten times, has encountered front man Dave Grohl in the flesh and even had a song dedicated to her at a Melbourne concert.
The Hamlyn Heights woman has been a self-proclaimed “Fooies nut” since the band’s inception, meeting her match in husband Blaz Brdar in 2002 who has a Foo Fighters tattoo.
After dancing to Times Like These in their first dance at their wedding, the couple elevated their fandom in 2011, winning tickets to an exclusive Goat Island concert where Ms Brdar managed to grab onto Grohl before being pulled off by security.
“Dave came into the crowd, I made a B-line for him and wrapped my arm around his neck, he was still playing guitar,” she said.
This was only topped in 2018 when Ms Brdar joined her sister at a taping of Channel 10’s The Project to watch Grohl be interviewed.
When filming was finished, Ms Brdar’s sister yelled out across the studio to Grohl requesting he play MsBrdar’s favourite song For All The Cows at their Marvel Stadium concert the next night, which happened to be her birthday.
Consequently, the band dedicated one of their encore songs to Brdar in an unforgettable birthday gift as she stood in the mosh pit below.
“I lost it, it was so surreal, it was probably a time in my life when I look back I feel like I was in some other realm,” she said.
Ms Brdar had a “sixth sense” that the rumours the band were coming to Geelong would be true, but can now confidently celebrate the band’s arrival at Kardinia Park on March 4.
“The fact it is in my hometown is just another part of my Foo Fighters story,” she said.
– Tamsyn Buckle.
Geelong Fooies superfan’s brush with rock god Grohl
Geelong Foo Fighters fan Marc McDowell has a pretty unique honour of making it into one of the band’s music videos and getting an exclusive behind-the-scenes encounter of front man Dave Grohl in action.
While on a last-minute trip to California eight years ago, Mr McDowell managed to convince his sister, who was catering for the band, to take him to the video shoot for the song Outside from 2014 album Sonic Highways.
McDowell says the set at the famous Joshua Tree studio Rancho De Luna was super relaxed, with Grohl cruising around the desert location on a motorbike during downtime, at one point riding right up to the Wallington resident.
“I stood there and thought if I’m going to get hit by a motorbike, it might as well be Dave Grohl because then I would get to meet him,” he said.
McDowell watched from a rooftop that can be seen in several frames of the final cut while chatting to producer Dave Catching, giving him the ultimate claim to fame.
Have you had a brush with any Foo Fighters band member? Get in touch at journo@geelongadvertiser.com.au
“I’m hardly in it, but I’m in it. Nobody believes me until I show them the photos,” he said.
McDowell even had a chance to talk to Grohl when he came up to the rooftop to thank Catching for use of the studio, but decided to play it cool in front of the star.
“If I had of just said ‘Hi, I’m Marc’, I could have had a conversation with him, but I felt like I was that far on the inside, I had to be cool,” he said.
The local firefighter is eager to get tickets to the March 4 gig, hoping to take his daughter Lexi (17) and son Fletcher (14) who have grown up listening to the Foo Fighters.
Foo Fighters concert a huge coup for Geelong
The one-off Foo Fighters concert in Geelong will be the first time a full-capacity stadium show by any international music artist has taken place in Australia since March 2020.
The multi-Grammy winning US band’s concert is expected to host a crowd of about 25,000.
Next weekend is shaping up to be a bumper few days for the region, with Midnight Oil performing at Mt Duneed Estate on March 5 and the Geelong Revival Motoring Festival being held.
The Foo Fighters concert will be the first ever live music show at GMHBA Stadium.
Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine executive director Brett Ince said he expected it would be an amazing weekend for the region.
“The Foo Fighters have such an international pull,” he said.
“I think it’s an absolute sign of confidence in our Covid recovery.”
Mr Ince said accommodation bookings had been “really strong”.
Online accommodation booking services revealed little availability in Geelong for the night of the Foo Fighters concert, while the Novotel on the waterfront was charging $699 for a room for two people.
City of Greater Geelong councillor Eddy Kontelj said every extra live music fan we could bring to Geelong was a chance for local businesses to get another dollar in the till.
“With our venues ready to welcome Foo Fighters fans, this is another step toward Geelong becoming the live entertainment hub of Australia,” Cr Kontelj said.
The Foo Fighters gig is part of a program being delivered by the state government called Always Live.
But the coup means a Nitro Circus event at Kardinia Park, scheduled for next Friday, will be moved to March 7.
Joe Carr, chief executive of Nitro Circus’ parent company Thrill One Sports and Entertainment said: “We’re happy to support … this very important effort to bring back live events as part of the reopening strategy.”
“While we anticipate that the date change may create adverse conditions for some of our ticketholders, this initiative will ultimately benefit not only Victoria but the entire
country,” he said.
Nitro Circus tickets already purchased will be honoured for the new date.
Kardinia Park Stadium Trust chief executive Gerard Griffin said it was a big opportunity for GMHBA Stadium to host the Foo Fighters.
“It will be one of the largest concerts to arrive in Australia since the pandemic began,” he said.
“We’re confident it will be a sellout with fans coming together once again.”
Always Live is a new statewide music celebration which will be held across regional Victoria and Melbourne in 2022.
The March concert will be followed by a program of dozens of events held at venues across Victoria later in the year.
The Foo Fighters’ hits include Best Of You and Learn To Fly.
They will be supported by Aussie acts Amyl and the Sniffers and The Meanies.
Tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster at midday Friday.
Ticket prices range from $99.90 to $219.90, with a limit of eight per person.
Attendees must have received at least two doses of the Covid vaccine.
For more information visit www.frontiertouring.com/foofighters
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