RAC Arena and Channel 7 Telethon Trust secure prestigious MEA award

Meetings & Events Australia (MEA) recently awarded RAC Arena & Channel 7 Telethon Trust the national ‘Cause Related Event of the Year’ for Telethon Weekend 2022.

MEA’s National Awards program is the most prestigious and highly regarded event industry Awards program in Australia that encompass the entire breadth of the Australian events sector.

RAC Arena is the home of live entertainment in Western Australia. Located in the heart of the Perth CBD, the venue has hosted some of the world's best live music, sport, family, and comedy.

Moving the spectacular Telethon event to RAC Arena was a major undertaking for all involved but an exciting one, opening up new possibilities for centralising the marathon 26-hour Telethon broadcast, staging the Family Festival and seamlessly blending the two events in one accessible city centre location. With the cooperation of the State Government and City of Perth, some central city roads were closed on the Sunday of the event and all public transport was made free to boost attendance and to assist in revitalising the city after the Covid closures.

Michael Scott, General Manager, RAC Arena enthused “RAC Arena was so thrilled to play host to the iconic Telethon Weekend, and we were proud to further support with a $120,000 in-kind donation from the venue to assist the wonderful work that the Telethon Institute does.

“The successful weekend was a result of 12 months of planning alongside the Telethon team and was brought to life with the hard work of over 400 RAC Arena personnel.”

Richard Goyder, Channel 7 Telethon Trust Chairman added “we thank RAC Arena, WA’s home of live entertainment, for their generous support in 2022 and look forward to working with their stellar team for many years to come.”

The Channel 7 Telethon is the highest donating Telethon (per capita) in the world, with the final 2022 tally reaching an incredible $71.4 million, and surpassing A$528 million raised in total since its inception.

Event snapshot:

• Over 34,000 people came through the doors of the Arena over the event weekend.

• An estimated 40,000 attended the Family Festival where, in spite of the rain, the streets were thronged.

• Over 614,000 people tuned in to the television broadcast.

• More than 9 million minutes were streamed across BVOD platform 7Plus from viewers around Australia.

For more information on upcoming events at RAC Arena please visit www.racarena.com.au/whats-on

Image top: 2022 Telethon Family Festival taking place on Wellington St outside RAC Arena; image above: Local performers entertaining Family Festival attendees outside RAC Arena.