Tasmanian Government Pays USD $430,000 for Foo Fighters One-Off

Tasmania’s government has contributed AUD $650,000 (USD $430,000) to lure Foo Fighters to play a show at York Park Stadium in Launceston on Saturday, January 24. It is the only Australian date to have been announced.

The breakdown:

• The state government is paying AUD $500,000, with the local council chipping in AUD $150,000.

• Stadiums Tasmania boss James Avery told Australia’s ABC that it will likely cost the state an additional “couple hundred thousand dollars” to put on the event.

• The show will be the biggest in Tasmania’s history.

Timing:

• The band’s appearance will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Beaconsfield mine collapse, in which miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell were trapped underground for two weeks.

• One of their requests during the ordeal was to be provided with iPods loaded with Foo Fighters songs.

• Foo Fighters wrote the track “Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners” on 2007’s Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace album.

• As per the ABC, the show also comes as Tasmania’s upper house is voting on an order to approve the Hobart stadium at Macquarie Point, which if successful could in the future lure more big name artists to the state.

• Avery says, however, that neither event was a central factor in striking a deal with the band.

• Foo Fighters have a history of playing one-off Australian shows in small regional towns, having played Geelong in rural Victoria in 2022.