Ironically, the Armageddon Expo could still be one of the last events to go ahead on Auckland's 2021 calendar, after covid lockdown rules laid waste to the majority of festivals, concerts, sports and cultural events this year.
The pop culture event named after a prophesised 'end of times' is still clinging to the hope it can go ahead, when many others events' time ended due to delta.
William Geradts, managing director of organiser Beyond Reality and founder of the convention, said the event has been held at the Auckland Showgrounds during the Labour weekend for 16 years running. This year will be only the second time it’s had to be moved.
The NZ event, similar to the US Comic-Con, has attracted 60,000 themed "geeks" and other visitors in prior years, but has already been postponed twice in 2021.
Geradts has now booked the three-day event from Dec 17 as a 'last gasp' opportunity to hold its biggest event this year. There are smaller versions in Wellington, Tauranga and Christchurch which are booked in from February next year.
Whether they go ahead depends on pandemic alert level social distancing restrictions, “so we’re waiting for government announcements and decisions around that”, he said.
It is widely expected the new certificate-based system for entry into restaurants, hospitality venues or events will be available from the end of November, once the country hits its 90% vaccination targets and moves to its new ‘traffic light’ system.
There are no settings at alert level 3 which support events, however.
The NZ Events Association (NZEA) counts more than 400 of an estimated 4,000 corporate or charitable events as having been cancelled or postponed, at an average value of about $2 million.
An NZEA survey of its 1,000 members reflected an average loss per event of about $167,000 to the organisers.
These included NZ Fashion Week, the Baby Show, the Auckland Boat Show and the Auckland Home Show, which would normally have attracted well over 100,000 delegates and visitors.
Subsistence
Shelved sports events include the intermediate schools’ AIMS games to be held in September and the Auckland Marathon, scheduled for last weekend.
Auckland Showgrounds operator Mark Frankham said the Greenlane venue, one of the country’s largest at 18,000 square metres of exhibition space, was down about $2m in revenue under the recent lockdown.
Frankham said the operator had trimmed staff from 20 to seven and was subsisting on government support and wage subsidies of about $40,000 a month which “just paid some of the bills”.
He said most events had pushed back to February and March next year. “Armageddon will probably go to the wire. They market on social media so planning and ticketing is a bit easier than for other major events.”
NZEA general manager Ségolène de Fontenay said the current lockdown which started in August, couldn’t have come at a worse time for the sector.
De Fontenay said business events contributed $1.45 billion to local economies pre-covid in 2019 “yet appeals for financial assistance dating back at least a year have fallen on deaf ears”.
She said the loss of skilled people in the sector, due to redundancies and lack of access to international talent, will be a looming issue.
That could have implications for upcoming major events including the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup and even through to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, “all of which have received government investment”.
Geradts said if Armageddon does manage to go ahead, the priority is hosting a safe event where everyone who is vaccinated can come along and “enjoy the magic and mayhem".
