For a young person living in Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory, the struggle of attending concerts is real. Imagine this, your favourite singer announces their world tour, they’re coming to Australia, but they’re only going to Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide – surprise surprise.
You decide to go still, spending hundreds of dollars on tickets for the concert, and then the mission to ask for time off work, find accommodation and save up for all the additional expenses begins. Even though it’s always worth it in the end, it’s not as easy as you think it is to pull off… let alone often.
At times, I wish I lived in a bigger city, imagine how much I’d save! You could buy the ticket, catch public transport to and from the stadium, AND come home and sleep in your own bed right after– no more wasting more than $100 dollars on petrol, $200 plus on a hotel, extra money on tolls, food for the weekend you’ll be staying in the city and tour merch.
Australia’s Greek music scene
When it comes to the Greek music scene in Australia, I have to say we’re pretty lucky, and there’s so much to offer for everyone. Whether you want to hear some live music in a taverna, watch a tribute band perform songs of a beloved Greek singer, go to the bouzoukia, or see your favourite Greek pop or laiko artist take the stage, we have it all, year round.
In the last two years alone, I’ve gone to see Konstantinos Argiros, Nikos Oikonomopoulos, Evangelia, Andromache, Thanos Petrelis and Dimitris Basis perform in Australia, and I am beyond grateful. The only inconvenience is that most of those concerts took place in Sydney and weren’t the easiest to attend. Unfortunately, I missed Christos Dantis, Melina Aslanidou, Giannis Ploutarchos, Josephine, Konstantinos Koufos, Konstantinos Pandelidis and more.
In Canberra, I’m not 100% sure why, but the bigger artists don’t come as often. Could it be the prices of tickets, maybe there’s not enough interest or not enough knowledge of the actual singer? Or maybe the size of the Greek community compared to other states, the cost for artists to come here, or perhaps, people would just rather save the money and see their favourite singers for less when they visit Greece?
Canberra deserves more recognition
If you’ve ever been to Greece and you’ve been asked where you’re from in Australia, and you answer, ‘I’m from the capital city,’ they’ll automatically assume you mean Sydney, as most people don’t know where Canberra is on the map – it needs more recognition.
More concerts in Canberra boosts more money into our economy, more support for singers, local businesses and venues, and a larger music culture.
One of the struggles I think we have here is the potential lack of interest surrounding attending concerts and music events. Greek music aside, Australia is home to major music music festivals including Spilt Milk, Listen Out and Splendour in the Grass, and despite constantly announcing big headline acts from across the globe every year, almost always, a couple of months, or even weeks before they go ahead, there’s artists that pull out of the line-up and people are left disappointed. Some festivals are even cancelled.
Unfortunately, it happens all the time in Canberra.
The Grass is Greener was set to launch for the first time in Canberra in 2022 as part of a wider plan to expand music festivals to smaller regions and cities – they promised a set list with popular names, tickets sold quickly, and then a week before the big day the organisers ended up cancelling the event, and the festival went into voluntary administration.
We need more support and more reliable events.
Post-COVID comebacks
As we all know, the entertainment industry has suffered majorly due to the aftermath of COVID-19, and its impacted concerts and events throughout the capital.
Even though Canberra doesn’t see as much international talent as other states, thanks to its dedicated Greek community, the Greek music scene continues to thrive post-COVID.
We have events run by our Greek youth club, the Greek Community and Church of Canberra in conjunction with the Hellenic Club of Canberra, as well as many individuals who come together with the same love for music and put forward ideas of who they want to see on stage.
Since 2021, we have seen Giorgos Tsalikis, Nikos Makropoulos, Giannis Ploutarchos, Katerina, Giorgos Kakosaios and Thanos Petrelis take the stage.
Now, with more artists expected to come to Australia this year and early next, I hope they come across this article and be inspired to spread their love by paying a visit to Canberra and make our lives as concert lovers a little easier.
