A new hospitality partnership between Melbourne Cricket Club at the MCG and Delaware North was launched in February 2022, with a series of events held on the same day to depict – a ‘Day in the Life’ of MCG Events.

The finale of the day was a Corporate Showcase, with invited industry colleagues and corporate clientele to re-see the G and to discover new initiatives as part of the re-imagined event offering under the newly developed brand MCG Events.

Divided into groups, we took guests on a progressive journey to showcase our focus on movement through the stadium and encourage event planners to look beyond holding an event in just one space, with so much to see and do when at the G’.  

Create an arrival zone

The MCG has five concourse bars that MCG Events activate as arrival zones, post event drink’s locations, and creative break out areas. Each space has its own unique design and opens up on to Yarra Park. For our Re- See the G event, guests arrived at the Blazer Bar for welcome drinks and canapes.

Other concourse bars available for your next event are:

• Stumps Bar has an old-world front bar feel that pays homage to the Richmond and inner north corner pubs.
• Tower Six features a large wood fired pizza oven and open kitchen, and
• Hugh Trumble contemporary new design including a large outdoor courtyard.

Inner sanctum access

For those familiar with the famous MCG tour that takes visitors on an inner sanctum walk through of the Long Room, the Changerooms, and down to the boundary line – we remind our guests that each of these spaces have the potential to be activated for their own events, pending approval.

To show a creative way to use the changerooms for a team breakout, motivational speech, or early morning rev up, we asked ‘Coach Colin’ to be on hand to give a legendary spray to the group.

Chefs on show

The Olympic Room was our culinary showcase for our chefs to highlight the very best the menus of our menus. Food stations featured fresh sustainable seafood; Artisan Victorian produce; Free range beef butchers blocks; Fire pit Roast suckling pig; a Willy Wonker inspired chocolate bar and edible garden dessert bar.

Executive Chef Dylan Sanding, Executive Sous Chef Shane Freer, and Culinary Director Markus Werner proudly spoke about Delaware North’s food philosophy of ‘always local first’ and interacted with guests at each station.

Virtual walk through

With over 35 event spaces to explore in and around the G’, it’s impossible to see everything at once.

To assist in the planning stages for event managers, we collaborated with CITE to develop a virtual replica (digital twin) of the MCG with an immersive 360 walk through the function rooms, the concourse, the arena, the bars and the dining outlets.

As our world evolves, the cutting-edge virtual technology ensures the MCG’s 24/7 visibility allowing you to tour the MCG just like you would in real life, from your chosen device, at a time and location convenient to you.

MCG is the first stadium in Australia to use this virtual platform showcasing the places and spaces at the MCG, each with its own identity and distinctive setting, providing a new level of engagement and interactivity.

Go big in the bowl

We wanted to remind our guests that the seating bowl and arena isn’t just reserved for match days. As our focus is to ensure that each event encourages movement throughout – especially at a conference – we invited our guests to sit in the grandstand and to see how the scoreboards can be used to deliver a live cross, keynote speech, or just a really invigorating live performance.

Streamed from the boundary Midnight Mix kicked off their set with a performance on the boundary beamed into the scoreboard – whilst the LED ribbon signage around the fence lines provided an electric backdrop to the act.

Terrace party

To highlights tour finished in the Robert Flower Terrace, overlooking the CBD skyline and Yarra Park – reminding all that there are many great spaces to activate at the G’ that include different outlooks of the precinct. Midnight Mix turned up the volume and got the party started.

 

The MCG acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi- wurrung people as the Traditional Owners on whose Country we are situated. We recognise and respect the cultural heritage of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who also visit the MCG.