Remember This? Crowded House Concert at the Sydney Opera House (1996)

Full citation below.

Remember This? is back for a short three-week mid-year series. 

This year marks the Golden Jubilee of the Sydney Opera House as it celebrates fifty years since opening, and I thought I'd select one highlight from its fifty-year history. 

The biggest event at the Opera House occurred in its forecourt on 24 November1996 when 150 000 people attended the last-ever concert by Crowded House, literally making it a crowded house. The concert was televised on television and raised $1 million for Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick.

Thousands were turned away, and the final figure, I believe, includes those who failed to land a spot on the forecourt and were forced to watch (or listen) from nearby foreshore areas.

The concert began at 8pm, lasted around two and a half hours and concluded with a fireworks display on Sydney Harbour. The final piece played was Don't Dream It's Over, which is still played widely on the radio to this day and even used in a New Zealand tourism commercial in the 2000s

Crowded House reunited for a one-off concert at the same venue in 2016 to mark the twentieth anniversary of that concert, performing to a crowd a fraction of the size. 

Such a crowd will never be matched due to safety restrictions that restrict the capacity of any major concert or event held in the Sydney Opera Forecourt.

Finally, it would rate as one of the most highly attended concerts in Australia but falls short of the 200 000 that attended the 1967 concert by The Seekers at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. 

Source: Rumble, T. & Hilferty, T. 1996. "It's a full House". The Daily Telegraph, November 25: 3.