Darwin Entertainment Centre 2023 program includes Jimmy Carr, Possum Magic, and more

Territorians can expect a full program of entertainment in 2023, with ‘something for everyone’ in store. We reveal how the events impact the NT’s tourism industry.

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Nicole Manison said the Darwin Entertainment Centre’s events were critical to Top End tourism. Picture: Floss Adams.

The Darwin Entertainment Centre’s 2023 program is chock-full of highly-anticipated acts set to bring a welcome boost to the Territory’s economy.

Darwin Entertainment Centre general manager Mike Harris said his team always aimed to accommodate a little bit of everything.

“There’s just a lot of stuff coming through,” he said.

“The work we have to do, of course, is to make sure there’s something for everyone.

“That’s the key, so no matter what you are out there, no matter what you like, at some point at DEC, we’ll have something for you.”

Mr Harris said one of the events he was most looking forward to was the 360 ALLSTARS show.

“There’s a lot of lights and a lot of music and sound and street culture and it’s just really a lot of fun,” he said.

Mr Harris said it was “a very interesting time to be selling tickets”.

“People’s buying patterns are different,” he said.

“They’re not coming to as many things as they may have come to before, they’re picking out particular things.”

Mr Harris said a single event could sell anywhere from 300 to 1000 tickets.

“We did a show last year called ‘Love Burns’, it was a contemporary opera,” he said.

“If you’re in the business of selling tickets, contemporary opera is the hardest bloody thing to sell tickets for, but we had to do it because we’ve not done anything like that.

“Only 300 people came, but we made it work, because it’s important that we do it.”

Carl Barron performed at the Darwin Entertainment Centre in April 2021. Picture: Supplied

Mr Harris said the DEC sold 5000 tickets to Australian comedian Carl Barron’s Top End gigs, selling out each show in 2021.

He said comedy was one of the top selling events in each year’s program – the Darwin Entertainment Centre website already indicated tickets to this year’s big-name comedian, Jimmy Carr, were “selling fast”.

Mr Harris said it was great to see “big numbers come to some things”, but it was equally important to support niche interests.

“It’s really important that we do something for the 200 people interested in seeing something that never gets to Darwin unless we bring it up,” he said.

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Nicole Manison said programs of events such as those the DEC delivered annually were critical to the Territory’s tourism industry.

“We always back in great places like the Darwin Entertainment Centre, but also our fantastic local events, things like the Darwin Festival, BASSINTHEGRASS coming up – with a massive line-up,” she said.

“But when you get the Darwin Entertainment Centre doing a magnificent program for the 2023 year as well, that helps.”

Ms Manison said the power of a world-class entertainer coming to Darwin should never be underestimated.

“People will jump on planes, people will see it as just a great opportunity because not only do they get to see that world-class act, but they also get to go to a place like Darwin and have a really great time and a great experience,” she said.

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