Easter ‘pop culture hub’ draws just 6000 visitors after City of Perth spends $100,000

The City of Perth splashed $100,000 on a pop-up arcade and “pop culture hub” that attracted just 6000 people to the CBD across three days over the Easter weekend. The “Free to Play” event was held in Forrest Place from Saturday, April 3, to Monday, April 5, and featured a “variety of free arcade games, pinball machines, virtual reality experiences and more”. It was designed to “encourage visitation back to the City of Perth” and support surrounding businesses as part of the COVID-19 economic rebound events and activation program. But just 6000 people took advantage of the ratepayer-funded free event — an average of 2000 a day. Asked whether the City had prepared projected attendance figures or modelled the economic benefit before approving Free to Play, Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas said “economic impact was measured and will be reported by Culture Counts in the coming weeks”. He also highlighted funding for the event had been ticked off by City of Perth commissioners rather than the current council in August of last year. “We are working hard to bring vitality back to our city and support local business, all events that promote this are considered of value,” Mr Zempilas said. “This council did not approve this event, it was approved by the commissioners who were dealing with different circumstances back then. “Everything around our events space is being reviewed with the aim of delivering better events, for a better price, more regularly.” On August 25, City of Perth commissioners approved a $1.2 million budget allocation for 2020-21 as part of the city’s COVID-19 rebound program. The guiding principles for those events included that “spend data be utilised to determine activation/events models which are successful in providing economic impact”. A report prepared for commissioners did not detail the Free to Play event, mentioning only setting aside $100,000 for the 2021 autumn school holidays from April 2 to 18. “Provide events and activities for families and children at Forrest Place to attract visitation during the day,” it said. Other events funded through the same program included a spring school holiday program ($150,000), the annual Brass on the Grass Christmas concert in December ($20,000) and the upcoming Heritage Perth weekend ($95,000).