'Absolutely fantastic night'

Well, that was a bit of fun! About 20,000 people flocked to the "Big Night In" at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday to celebrate the Otago Daily Times' 150th anniversary and the first community event at the new stadium.

Fittingly, it was a concert of two halves, with the afternoon's family picnic atmosphere fading into an evening rock concert, where green, red and purple glowsticks transformed the stadium into a technicolour glow-worm cave.

• Stadium sound quality concerns

• Photos: ODT's 'Big Night In'

Mosgiel resident Ruby Beattie (82) made her first visit to the stadium, with son Ray, for the concert.

"I've been looking forward to this all week and it's been wonderful; really marvellous. The best concert I've ever been to," she said.

The "Big Night In" was "a big thank you" to the people of Otago who paid for and owned the stadium, Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said.

"It's great to get everyone together like this in our new stadium. This proves that we can do just about anything here."

Singer Kylie Price (18) had a grin a mile wide after coming offstage from performing Bennie and the Jets.

"That was really, really good. It was such a buzz. It's so different to anything I've done before. You could feel the energy from the crowd."

Auckland performer Tina Cross said it was one of the best community concerts she had been involved in.

"That was awesome. It was an absolutely fantastic night. All the local and regional talent here is phenomenal."

The concert wasn't all about grace, good looks and talent, though.

At one stage, Mr Cull, Allied Press managing director Julian Smith and business manager Nick Smith, Carisbrook Stadium Charitable Trust chairman Malcolm Farry and Dunedin Venues management Ltd chief executive David Davies sang and air-guitared their way through We Are the Champions.

"We're very pleased with how it went and we're delighted with the turnout and the mood at the concert," Julian Smith said yesterday.

"It was great seeing all the families there and children running around. We hope everyone enjoyed it and had a very memorable evening."

"Big Night In" artistic producer Doug Kamo said he was "stoked" with both the production and the response from the community.

"I looked out at about 6.30pm and just felt so proud. It's been a huge project. It was the first concert in this venue and we were always a bit nervous about that. But the cross-section of people who came showed that the whole community embraced it. This was always about bringing our community and families together."

The grass at the stadium had stood up well to the concert, Dunedin Venues Management Ltd chief executive David Davies said, after inspecting the pitch yesterday.

"There was a bit of wear in the middle, where kids were playing around behind the lighting tower, but we're pretty pleased with how it went. It handled it fine."

Senior Sergeant Nathan White, of Dunedin police, said yesterday there had been no problems at the concert.

A cheque for $12,000 was presented at the end of the concert to KidsCan.

Winners of the Deloitte's Win A Wish competition were George Sutherland (12 $100 petrol vouchers for volunteers who improve tramping tracks), Maureen Carruth (a new recliner chair for Dunedin Hospital's emergency department's quiet room) and Stephanie Lovelle-Pool (a holiday for the King family who raised $11,000 for the Child Cancer Foundation).

The ODT marks its official sesquicentennial with a special souvenir edition tomorrow - 150 years to the day after founders William Cutten and Julius Vogel established the newspaper in 1861.