Hawaii promoter Tom Moffatt said the Japanese supergroup Arashi’s pair of shows this weekend at Ko Olina Resort that are costing $8 million to produce will be among the biggest concerts he’s ever been a part of.
“It’s probably the biggest concert ever in Hawaii that’s been completely created in an open situation,” Moffatt told PBN Monday. “The other concerts I’ve had, the big ones, have been at Aloha Stadium. I’ve done concerts at the old stadium, the Blaisdell Concert Hall, the Blaisdell Arena, the Waikiki Shell and various Neighbor Islands and various Neighbor Island countries, but this is one of the biggest things, if not the biggest, thing I’ve ever been associated with.”
It’s important to note that Moffatt is no stranger to big-time concerts: he's the man who brought such big acts as Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson to the Islands. The Arashi Blast in Hawaii shows won’t be the largest concerts by attendance — Moffatt notes that the Michael Jackson shows in 1997 drew 60,000 people to Aloha Stadium.
Stage construction for the concerts, which will take place on Friday and Saturday, is currently underway. Shipped in from Japan, the stage will stand 63 feet tall, and be 280 feet wide and 64 feet deep. It will also feature movable stages, a staple of the boy band’s concerts in Japan.
“In this one, most of the stage is going to come over the audience with the performers on stage,” he said. “It’s going to be wild.”
In addition, there will be 13 high-definition screens.
About 100 to 250 people have been setting up the venue at Ko Olina’s Naia Lagoon 3 for the past week. Moffatt expects 500 people will be needed to work at the concert on Friday and Saturday. The estimated cost of the production is $8 million.
Louis Leal, staging manager of Hawaii Stage & Lighting Rentals, said the company erects scaffolding and staging using eight-foot horizontal ledgers. The company owned 1,600 of them, but needed 4,000 for this show alone and had to order the additional pieces from Bil-Jax, a steel manufacturer in Ohio.
Leal has 30 years of experience in the business in Hawaii — his first show was The Police at Aloha Stadium in 1984. When he had heard about the concert, he watched the Arashi's 10th anniversary show, which he said was filled with "gags," or lots of moving parts. Leal said there have never been this many moving parts for a concert in Hawaii, ever.
“Nobody has ever done a show like this, ever, where you start from scratch and build," Moffatt said. "The stadium concerts, we had pre-made stages that were broken apart and brought here, the pieces put together like a puzzle. This one, we just started from scratch and built from the ground up.”
No backpacks will be allowed during the concerts, and neither will outside food and beverages. Arashi will provide a souvenir concert seat to all ticketholders, so lawn chairs, backrests, blankets and cushions will not be allowed. It’s also a dry event and no alcohol is allowed.
As of Monday, tickets to the concert were still available, but Moffatt said he expects the concerts to sell out. Maximum capacity is 15,000 for each show.
PBN previously reported that the concert is expected to bring in more than $18 million in direct spending and more than $100 million in advertising and public relations exposure.
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