Four major events have attracted record crowds into the City of Perth across the weekend.
Photo by Duncan Barnes, source: RAC Arena
Statistics released today have revealed 110,000 people were attracted to the city between Friday night and Sunday evening, contributing to the highest night footfall for February in three years.
City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas said the weekend numbers were spread out across multiple venues, including the retail core.
"These are phenomenal figures for February. To have so many people flocking to the City of Light for such a wide variety of reasons is great to see and a stunning endorsement for Perth," Mr Zempilas said.
More than 14,000 people swarmed the RAC Arena for the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Sunday morning, with a preliminary UFC training session at Elizabeth Quay and Saturday's weigh-in all attracting crowds.
"An event like this has a huge ripple effect for our businesses, with crowds spanning across multiple venues across multiple days. On Sunday alone, our sensor data shows crowd numbers were high from 6am to early evening," Mr Zempilas said.
Another 14,000 people attended the St Jeromes Laneway Festival, a boutique indie music festival that has once again returned to the City of Perth.
"We are thrilled to have the Laneways Festival back where it belongs in the City of Light and very proud to be a sponsor. Clearly the event was a huge hit – the weekend's crowd was our biggest yet in Wellington Square since it opened in 2020," Mr Zempilas said.
"We also had other big-ticket names like Sting playing to sell out crowds at Kings Park and the flow-on from more than 50,000 people converging on Optus Stadium to see Red Hot Chilli Peppers," he said.
The retail core was also busy, with 10,314 people in the Murray Street mall on Saturday alone.
Fringe World is also doing its bit to draw in extra people to our City, as is the Perth Festival which opened on Friday.
"I'm immensely proud of the atmosphere we are creating in our capital's heart. Increasingly, it's a city event organisers want to hold events in and a city people want to come and visit. What a brilliant time of year to be showcasing the best city in the world," Mr Zempilas said.
