Russell Crowe on his official Twitter account asked the question...
'The next IGP should be...where? Give an opinion. Sell your idea. Practical information like local promoters welcome. Just gathering your thoughts. SYD? MEL? LAX? ITA? @IGPmusic @alanthomasdoyle @ScottGrimes @SamanthaBarks @carlfalkmusic 9 April, 2018.
Last year Russell Crowe and the Indoor Garden Party of Alan Doyle, Scott Grimes, Carl Falk, Kevin Durand, Lorraine O'Reilly and a range of friends performed a number of concerts in the United Kingdom in London, Leeds and Dublin, Ireland. In previous years, the Indoor Garden Party with Samatha Barks performed at Coffs Harbour, and New York City. In 2011 the group performed in St. John's, Newfoundland with Danielle Spencer. Most concerts sold out very quickly. New and old fans travelled far and wide from America, Europe and Australia to meet each other and share their love of the music of Russell Crowe and the Indoor Garden Party.
Excited fans responded to Russell's requests promoting their favourite cities, countries and venues in the hope that he would perform there. After reading the fan's tweets I decided to respond here purely hypothetically of course as I am blocked from Russell Crowe's official Twitter account. Perth would be the perfect venue because it wouldn't show favourites to certain groups of fans whether they be Australian, North American or European in giving those that live and want to travel easy access.
Russell Crowe has a long association with Perth and Western Australia. He came to Perth in 2003 with the 30 Foot Odd Grunts and performed at the Lookout Hotel in Scarborough near the beach. Russell's rugby league club, the South Sydney Rabbitohs have been playing regular rugby league games in Perth for many years to help promote rugby league in this state. The South Sydney Rabbitohs have a history of positive interaction and support with the local community and would know the resources for the promotion of events locally.
Perth has the perfect venue with His Majesty's Theatre. The theatre was built in 1904 and is fully restored with a seating capacity around 1260 people. The theatre is centrally located in the business district and regularly hosts productions of musicals, ballet, opera, Shakespearean plays and many other events. It is believed to be the only working remaining Edwardian theatre in Australia. Famous performers who have visited and performed there include Dame Margot Fonteyn, Judy Garland, Sir John Gielgud, Percy Granger, Sir Rex Harrison, Katherine Hepburn, Barry Humpheries, Vivien Leigh, Dame Nellie Melba, Dudley Moore, Anna Pavlova, Sir Ian McKellen and Angela Lansbury (Wikipedia, 2018). Russell Crowe would be in good company.
Perth, the capital of Western Australia has a population of around 1.8 million people. Although the city may seem far away there are now inexpensive direct flights from London, America and from eastern Australia. In 2014, The New York Times published a story on the 52 Places to Go in 2014 and Perth was mentioned in the top 10. Major cities also mentioned that year were Cape Town, South Africa, Christchurch, New Zealand, Downtown, Los Angeles and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Other places to go in 2014 were wild and exotic like the coast of Albania, Namibia, Ecuador and Vietnam. No other Australian cities were mentioned in the top 52.
There is also a lot of other things for visitors to do including shopping, eating and drinking in the numerous restaurants and bars, visiting local parks, waterfronts and the cultural centre in the city centre. There are AFL games on the weekends from March to September, the spectacular Cottesloe Beach on the Indian Ocean for fish and chips, King’s Park and Botanical Garden which contains thousands of acres of native species of flora for a walk, a picnic lunch, bike ride or to take in an Indigenous tour to learn about their history and connection to the land. Just a short ferry ride across the Swan River is the zoo in South Perth where a visitor can meet the local wildlife.
A visitor can catch a train down to the historical port city of Fremantle, full of historic buildings, restaurants and pubs and a former prison that has been turned into a museum where they can learn about the convict past and maritime history of the state. From there it is just a short ferry ride to Rottnest Island and the tiny marsupials that have become so popular with celebrity selfies, quokkas. Depending on what time of the year a visitor is here they may wish to try their luck watching whales or swimming with dolphins. Not too far from Perth is the New Norcia Benedict Monastery famous for its bread, nut cake and olive oil and the Swan Valley full of historic buildings, wineries, micro breweries and chocolate factories. What ever time of the year a visitor comes there is a range of activities to suit all interests.
I am sure what ever venues Russell Crowe chooses the fans will come from far and wide to see him and the Indoor Garden Party perform and love every minute of it. I have included some photographs of His Majesty's Theatre in Perth from Wikipedia. No copyright infringement intended.
References
Dreisinger, B. (2014) 'Catching Perth's Wave in Western Australia' published in The New York Times at mobile.nytimes on 27 February, 2014.
New York Times, (2014). '52 Places to Go in 2014' published in The New York times at mobile.nytimes.
Peterson, L. (2017), 'In and Around Perth, Natural Wonders Abound' published in the mobile.nytimes on 26 January, 2017.
Wikipedia (2018). 'His Majesty's Perth ' published at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Majesty%27s_Theatre,_Perth on 11 April, 2018.
