Perth Festival is budgeting for a doubling in box office sales next year after signing up acclaimed Icelandic performer Björk for an Australian-exclusive season.
Björk will perform four concerts in early March at a specially constructed 5,000-seat pavilion on Langley Park.
"This is a result of 10 years of conversations," festival artistic director Iain Grandage said.
He added it was also good fortune, as many performers' schedules had been disrupted by COVID restrictions.
"We have been in conversation with Björk over a long period of time and suddenly a window opened up in March of 2023," he said.
"We have programmed the festival around the opportunity.
"There are very few artists in the world who have not only uncompromising artistic integrity but also popularity to go alongside that and we are thrilled to have her here."
Mr Grandage said Björk had decided to spend more than a week in Perth.
"She only has a small windown of opportunity and therefore thought it would be better to stay in a single place," he said.
The four concerts will be a big money-spinner for the festival, with ticket prices ranging from $116 to $449.
The festival has disclosed it is budgeting to earn about $6.2 million from box office sales in 2023, up 120 per cent on this year.
Executive director Nathan Bennett said about half that would come from the Björk season.
The festival plans to work with Tourism WA to attract visitors from interstate and overseas as Björk’s first and only Australian concert series in 15 years was seen as a significant drawcard.
Mr Bennett said Björk’s Perth season would be sandwiched between performances in the Middle East and Japan, highlighting the rare opportunity for Perth.
Asked about the commercial risks, Mr Bennett said the festival was “pretty resilient”.
"We have emerged from the recent years of COVID disruption in a strong financial position and are grateful for the confidence our government, corporate and other partners have shown in our operational processes," he said.
Mr Bennett said the festival had rigorous processes around risk assessment and mitigation - something that will be particularly relevant ahead of the planned Björk tour.
“It is significant, it’s a huge investment, and exactly what Perth Festival needs after a couple of challenging years," he said.
“I think it will attract a huge amount of attention.”
Björk will perform in a custom-built 100 metre by 55 metre pavilion for her Cornucopia shows, described as a spectacular theatrical concert experience.
“It’s as much a theatre show as it is a concert, its far, far more than Björk in concert,” Mr Grandage said.
Co-directed by Björk and Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, this “sci-fi pop concert” is based on her environmentally themed 2017 album Utopia, plus songs from new album Fossora and hits from her 30-year solo career.
The pavilion will have a landscape of colours, futuristic screens and images of nature, and Björk will performs live alongside musicians and choirs of flutes and voices.
There are water drums, a cocoon-like reverb chamber, a video message from Greta Thunberg, costumes by the fashion house Balmain and lavish visuals of artist Tobias Gremmler projected above designer Chiara Stephenson’s forest of flora and fungi.
