Taylor Swift, Lunar New Year and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival have had a dramatic impact on the number of people moving in and around Sydney over the past month, drawing big crowds into the heart of the city and its surrounding suburbs.
New data from digital outdoor company QMS reveals a high velocity of audiences returning to the City of Sydney, which spans 26 square kilometres and 33 suburbs. The numbers were up 20 per cent in February compared to January this year and up 6 per cent versus the 2023 average.
The Sydney CBD saw a 21 per cent lift, with some suburbs seeing even bigger increases. Audiences in Newtown and Eveleigh jumped 81 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively. Other sought-after suburbs also recording double-digit rises include Potts Point (21 per cent), Glebe (19 per cent), Elizabeth Bay (16 per cent), Woolloomooloo (16 per cent), and Paddington (13 per cent).
The number of interstate visitors to the City of Sydney was also up a strong 28 per cent on the 2023 average and up 21 per cent on January 2024, fuelled, in part, by the high number of people who came from interstate for Taylor Swift’s Sydney concerts.
People flocked to Sydney’s Chinatown during Lunar New Year, with the area featuring the QMS City of Sydney street furniture network seeing a 60 per cent surge in audience numbers on weekend evenings compared to a week earlier and a 34 per cent increase across the full weekend.
Mardi Gras had a similar impact, boosting audience numbers 20 per cent on the festival’s weekends, including a massive 76 per cent jump in interstate visitors. Sydney’s Oxford Street precinct saw the biggest gains, up 38 per cent across the entire festival and up 74 per cent in the evenings.
“The triple whammy of Lunar New Year, Taylor Swift and Mardi Gras has proven once again that Sydney is the major event capital of Australia, drawing huge crowds not just to the city but also to the suburbs surrounding it,” said QMS General Manager, City of Sydney, Olivia Gotch.
“These global events demonstrate the unrivalled power of Sydney, to draw significant audiences and unite people within the city where they live, work and play”.
“Our digital-first City of Sydney network sits right within the heartland of this event mecca, enabling brands to authentically engage with their customers across the most digitally-advanced, data-enabled out of home network in Australia. Its design, scale, reach and influence are world-class and, as the velocity of audience uplift shows, it is an incredibly powerful marketing channel,” she said.
The QMS City of Sydney digital street furniture network reaches 2.6 million people weekly, two-thirds of whom live in the Greater Sydney region.
It covers 10 distinctive precincts across 33 of Sydney’s most desirable suburbs: Alexandria, Annandale, Barangaroo, Beaconsfield, Camperdown, Centennial Park, Chippendale, Darlinghurst, Darlington, Dawes Point, Elizabeth Bay, Erskineville, Eveleigh, Forest Lodge, Glebe, Haymarket, Millers Point, Moore Park, Newtown, Paddington, Potts Point, Pyrmont, Redfern, Rosebery, Rushcutters Bay, St Peters, Surry Hills, Sydney, The Rocks, Ultimo, Waterloo, Woolloomooloo and Zetland.
