Here’s what we got up to in September!
In the winner’s circle
Winning awards is far from the reason why we do what we do here at RAC Arena, but it sure is nice when we get noticed. Recently at the 2023 Australian Event Awards and Symposium, we picked up Venue of the Year for our work over the past 12 months. The award was decided upon by a panel of industry experts, with the winning criteria being a venue that demonstrates leadership and innovation over a 12-month period and significantly enhanced the event experience. We are chuffed with our efforts and can’t thank our team enough for the work in helping to make this happen.
From the coolness of Culture Club to the coldness of Cirque
It was party time with Culture Club in early September. The UK outfit kicked off their Australian tour with a cracking show alongside fellow new wave band, Berlin.
Fans of Cirque du Soleil were also pleased to see the breath-taking act back in the venue with an all new show: CRYSTAL. Combining extreme, high flying acrobatics with elegant ice-skating was enough to draw tens of thousands of punters out to one of the ten performances across a two week period. Amazing!
800 big ones!
The fifth show of Cirque du Soleil in September marked a major milestone for the RAC Arena crew. It was our 800th official event since we first opened our doors way back in November 2012. Since then, we’ve had everything from major tennis tournaments, larger than life music megastars, comedy kings, NBL and SSN championships, and even a visit from the Dalai Lama. Being Perth’s home of live entertainment truly has been the gift that keeps on giving, and we can’t wait to do it for many more events to come.
To celebrate the milestone, we gave away 800 cupcakes to fans that were first in best dressed for the Cirque du Soleil performance, and also treated staff on the day.
Welcome back Wildcats!
The Perth Wildcats got off to a flyer in their first home game of the 2023/2024 NBL season, downing the Tasmania Jackjumpers by a nailing-biting six points! The Red Army were welcomed back into The Jungle in style with a record breaking performance from new recruit, Jordan Usher. Usher finished the game with 35 points on the board, smashing Bryce Cotton’s seven-year record for the most points on NBL debut by a Wildcat. We can’t wait to see what else the boys have in store for us this season!
Welcome aboard to three deserving not-for-profits
Earlier in the month, we proudly announced that we would be welcoming Telethon, West Australian Music (WAM), and Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre, on board as an RAC Arena Community Partner. The decision follows an internal staff survey and an announcement made on International Day of Charity. The three charities will join our existing long-time community partners, The Salvation Army, Ronald McDonald House Charities WA, Lifeline WA, Autism Association of WA and Polly Farmer Foundation, from 2023 until 2025.
Sustainability in the spotlight
Our goal to become one of the greenest and most sustainable venues in Australia is right on track after recent data showed that since the start of 2023, we’ve collected more than 120,000 containers for Containers for Change, recycled more than 34 tonnes of cardboard and glass, and diverted almost 38 tonnes of organics and compostable packaging from landfill.
These figures are off the back of our work creating a sustainability roadmap with Perth-based sustainability consulting experts, WRITE Solutions, adopting reusable cups in our retail bars, swapping single-use plastic packaging for compostable alternatives from BioPak, and installing additional green bins across the venue to capture organic food waste.
These findings are great, but we’re not done yet! Read more about our work so far, here.
