Concerts by British band Coldplay at the Kaohsiung National Stadium attracted more than 170,000 fans over the weekend and generated about NT$550 million (US$17.18 million) in revenue, the city government said on Monday.
On Sunday, the number of people in and around the stadium peaked at 86,505, a record for the venue, it said in a statement.
The stadium and areas around it were visited by more than 170,000 people over the two days, boosting sales at night markets by at least 30 percent and lifting occupancy rates at downtown hotels to 90 percent, it said.
Photo: CNA
To facilitate transportation of fans, the city coordinated with the Kaohsiung MRT to increase rail services and arranged shuttle buses, it said.
It took 82 and 88 minutes to disperse the crowds on Saturday and Sunday respectively, the city said.
Of the 170,000 people who attended, 70 percent were from outside Kaohsiung, including overseas visitors from Hong Kong, Macau, Europe, North America and Southeast Asia, Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau data showed.
Separately, the Kaohsiung City Government on Wednesday said that the stadium, which has a capacity of 55,000, is the only stadium in Taiwan that can hold more than 45,000 people.
The stadium has received a “gold” rating from the central government for its environmental design, which is in line with Coldplay’s advocacy for environmental sustainability, the city government said.
Designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, the dragon-shaped stadium’s main structure has 8,844 solar panels that can generate 1.1 million kilowatts of electricity annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 660 tonnes per year, it said.
Coldplay aims to make its Music of the Spheres world tour “as sustainable and low-carbon as possible,” mainly by cutting carbon emissions by 50 percent compared with their previous tours in 2016 and 2017, and supporting new green technologies, the band said on its Web site.
To encourage recycling, Coldplay asked concert-goers to return their LED wristbands after the shows, the city government said.
At the band’s first Kaohsiung concert on Saturday, the recycling rate for LED wristbands was 93 percent, the city government said.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS