Singer Paul Simon (71) arrives in Dunedin today for the first of two New Zealand performances following a tour of Australia, and the stage he and opener Rufus Wainwright will perform on is ready to go.
Manolo Echave, promoter Chugg Entertainment's New Zealand representative, said the stage was built in Dunedin and the trusses supplied locally, but the speakers, lighting and other parts of the sound system were trucked south from Auckland earlier this week.
The crew started assembling the stage on Tuesday. It was nearly finished last night. Lighting checks were completed last night and sound checks were due to take place today from 2pm to about 6pm.
The concert stage was relatively low because the audience on the field was seated, but the sound system was the usual set-up for an outdoor stadium concert with an audience of up to 25,000 people, similar to what would be used at venues such as Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, Mr Echave said.
The speakers were placed to spread and direct sound to all stands in the stadium - a lesson learnt by promoters and sound production managers from the Elton John concert.
He did not anticipate any issues with the sound quality tonight, he said.
Mr Echave last night said he did not have the exact figure, but between 10,000 and 15,000 tickets had been sold.
The Otago Daily Times understands about 12,000 tickets were sold by early yesterday.
The stadium was an easy venue in which to work, Mr Echave said.
''There's nowhere else we would be holding an outdoor concert like this at this time of year, but here it's not an issue.
''There's no hold-ups because of rain or wind.''
From a promoter's point of view, the most important thing that would ensure it remained an attractive option was that the market was not overwhelmed.
''I'm not sure this market can take more than two or three big concerts a year.''
Simon is expected to fly in from Auckland with his band this morning and fly back north immediately after the concert.
