Victoria is Australia's home of live entertainment [LPA Report]

It’s official: Victoria is Australia’s capital of live entertainment, the space for concerts and festivals is alight, and live is bigger than pro sports. It’s all outlined in Live Performance Australia's latest snapshot of the live performance sector, published Thursday.

Across the nation, 2017 was a “record-breaking year,” says Evelyn Richardson, CEO of LPA while releasing the peak body’s 2017 Ticket Attendance and Revenue Report.

Every state and territory generated growth in revenue and attendance during the reporting period, according to the report.

Crucially, Victoria ($639.9 million revenue from ticket sales, up 45.3%) has ousted New South Wales ($615.8 million, up 16.2%) from the top of the ticket-sales leaderboard for the first time.

Together, Victoria and NSW generated about 66.7% of Australia’s live performance revenue and 61.9% of attendance in 2017.

Also during the year, Queenslanders got out in record numbers. Some 3.2 million of them went to a show, up 26.5% from the previous year, as ticket sales in the Sunshine State boomed to $263.9 million, an annual growth rate of 46.4%, the largest among all its neighbours.

Forget the naysayers. Pop, rock and hip-hop concerts were at the heart of all the action.

In a year when Adele, Paul McCartney, Guns N’ Roses, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Bieber and many more played a venue near you, the so-called “contemporary music” category recorded its highest levels of revenue ($826 million, up 87.7%) and ticket sales.

Adele

The growth is primarily due to the "large number of prominent acts with arena or stadium tours" that attracted large crowds and toured to almost all the five major cities, the report notes.

Meanwhile, the "contemporary music" festivals category recorded a "significant increase" in revenue by 26% to $100.7 million and in attendance - thanks in no small part to Splendour in the Grass, Bluesfest, Groovin’ the Moo, Laneway and others.

Bluesfest

All told, $1.88 billion was generated through ticket sales across the country, up 32%. That’s more than the combined attendances at AFL, NRL, Soccer, Super Rugby, Cricket and NBL in the same year, according to (Australian Sporting Attendances 2018, Stadiums Australia).

More than 23 million Australians attended live events during the 12-month stretch, a figure 23% greater than the corresponding period the year earlier. Simply put, almost every man, woman and child got out to a show.

Read the LPA’s 14th annual report here.