A week ago, Elton John’s first Auckland show was called off at the last minute. What was it like getting there, being there, and trying to return home afterwards?

Elton John has long been a blessing for our ears, but in recent years his Auckland shows have been cursed. His February 2020 performance was aborted partway through due to pneumonia stealing away his voice. Early efforts to reschedule the show were thwarted by the pandemic, which “devastated” Elton. Afterwards, he vowed that he “was committed to fulfilling my promise of returning“. After such a long wait, fans were rightly excited for Elton’s January 2023 Auckland comeback. But then, last Friday, the curse returned.

After a day of torrential rain, the first of two scheduled dates at Mt Smart Stadium was officially called off just after 7pm – less than half an hour before the famously punctual musician was due to take the stage. But 11,000 fans had already turned up, all in varying states of saturation from drizzled to drenched. Stuff photographer Ricky Wilson called the immediate aftermath of the cancellation announcement “pandemonium,” with concertgoers facing “massive delays” and severe congestion upon exiting. 

That sense of pandemonium was exacerbated by poor communication from Auckland Transport (AT). One day before the concert, AT recommended that because of rail closures, concertgoers should drive or walk to the show, noting that there were 761 free car parking spots near Mount Smart Stadium – for 40,000 projected attendees. The Herald reported that fans were dismayed by AT’s last-minute, impractical suggestion. Even transport minister Michael Wood chimed in, calling AT’s advice “pretty weird“. It was later revealed that AT had 80 buses lined up to take fans from the CBD to MT Smart. But by then, the damage from AT’s “drive or walk” message had already been done. The Spinoff encouraged concertgoers to “give yourself the most time you’ve ever given to travelling to a concert if you can”.

The whole experience – journeying to Mt Smart, being inside the stadium, and then trying to return home to Newmarket – was described as “fucking traumatic” by attendee Maya. She gave The Spinoff a first-hand account of her experience. 

Before the concert, while at a pharmacy buying rain ponchos, Maya discussed travel plans to the concert with eight other soon-to-be-disappointed Elton fans. “We were all driving or getting dropped off by a car.” With the ponchos secured, Maya and a friend heeded AT’s advice and got behind the wheel. “The only reason we drove there is because that is what they suggested. I would have 100% trained if that was an option,” she says. Once there, they embarked on a 30 minute walk in heavy rain from their distant car park to the stadium, and “within the first five minutes, I was soaked, and my feet were wet from the big puddles”. 

Arriving at the stadium, they were hungry from their long walk. The first kai they found was inaccessible “because there was a huge puddle enveloping the food stand”. Inside, the atmosphere was “stressful” because people were already “wet and cold”. But it had its funny side. “The scene was comedic. People in jandals soaking wet with mascara dripping down their faces.” Rainfall was so heavy that visibility was an issue, so “everyone was trying to weave through and not hit each other”. This all added up to “a communal sense of stupidity, with people thinking what the fuck are we doing here?“.

Once the cancellation announcement was made, the mood darkened further. There was a feeling of  “utter disappointment” and a chorus of “for fuck’s sake”, Maya remembers. Many fans were angry and anxious, questioning why it wasn’t cancelled sooner. Outside Mt Smart, the scene had changed dramatically. Cars that were fine on the way in were now “submerged to their number plates”, Maya says. “That’s when we knew this shit was serious! After that, we definitely picked up the pace.”

Regarding AT’s advice that people drive, Maya says: “they fucked up big time. Because of them, a lot of people lost their cars – AT are to blame for that.” Fortunately, Maya’s car was safe, but the walk back was dangerous, with people tripping on submerged hazards. Driving home was “scary because so many streets were closed from flooding and we were in a low car”, forcing them to backtrack multiple times. Traffic, she says, was appalling, taking an hour to move 900m along Neilson Street in Onehunga. “It was painful because everyone was trying to leave along the one non-flooded road. There was nowhere else to go.” 

On their crawl home, they saw a huge maunga landslide and were greeted by a motorway-turned-stream that eventually became a waterfall near Greenlane. They stopped at a BP where they witnessed “a lot of emotional people, because it was quite a heightened situation. One of the girls in the bathroom was crying because she was worried she wouldn’t be able to get home.” But Maya also remembers a sense of kindness, with people checking in on and hugging one another. After the BP, Maya and her friend considered parking up and walking the rest of the way. But they soldiered on, and after three hours of what usually is a 20-minute drive, they made it home. 

What an ordeal – all for a concert that, in hindsight, should have been called off before anyone even arrived. But Maya pointed out that she and her friend “didn’t even have it that bad” compared to other fans. Her mum told her of a friend who didn’t get home until midnight, and we now know that many fans’ cars were written off from flooding. Maya’s description of her experience as “fucking traumatic” likely rings true for many of the cancelled concertgoers.