Taylor, Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras Spark Big Audiences for City of Sydney

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 leading digital outdoor company QMS reveals a high velocity of audiences returning to the City of Sydney, which spans 26 square kilometres and 33 suburbs. Numbers were up 20% in February compared to January this year and up 6% versus the 2023 average.

The Sydney CBD saw a 21% lift, with some suburbs seeing even bigger increases with audiences in Newtown and Eveleigh jumping 81% and 26% respectively. Other sought-after suburbs also recording double-digit rises include Potts Point (21%), Glebe (19%), Elizabeth Bay (16%), Woolloomooloo (16%) and Paddington (13%).

The number of interstate visitors to the City of Sydney was also up a strong 28% on the 2023 average and up 21% 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% surge in audience numbers on weekend evenings compared to a week earlier and a 34% increase across the full weekend.

Mardi Gras had a similar impact, boosting audience numbers 20% on the festival’s weekends, including a massive 76% jump in interstate visitors. Sydney’s Oxford Street precinct saw the biggest gains, up 38% across the entire festival and up 74% in the evenings.

QMS General Manager, City of Sydney, Olivia Gotch, said: “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.

“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.

“Its design, scale, reach and influence are world-class and, as the velocity of audience uplift shows, it is an incredibly powerful marketing channel,” says Olivia.

The QMS City of Sydney digital street furniture network reaches 2.6 million people every week – two-thirds of whom live across 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.