Cricket: Napier park transforms from Six60 to Twenty20

The elaborate stage at McLean Park, replicating a Dunedin student flat that gave its name to the biggest name in New Zealand music, set-up, pulled-down in less than a week. Photo / Paul Taylor

It'll be from Six60 to Twenty20 in barely a blink of the eye as McLean Park becomes a cricket ground again after its invasion by 15,000 concert fans on Saturday.

It was the biggest crowd at the park since 22,390 attended the 2014 rugby test between the All Blacks and Argentina, when the only invader on the park was a female streaker.

Napier City Council events manager Kevin Murphy confirms the ground will be back in good shape for a men's cricket international between New Zealand and India on November 22.

Napier was blessed with fine weather for almost all of the time from when the park was set up to the time it was cleared.

Murphy said the oval was cleared less than 24 hours after Six60 left the stage on Saturday night, which was soon packed along with sound and lighting systems and fixtures headed for the next gig on the "Stadium Tour" in Rotorua next Saturday.

Anything else was expected to have been removed by "close of business" on Monday.

"The turf is in good condition," he said. "There is 172 metres of turf that needs to be replaced and will at the promoter's cost. That's very minimal so it's good news."

Some of the turf will be oversown and redone, and the cricket block in the centre of the oval was protected by flooring and wasn't damaged, he said after the first of the debriefings. There had been no noise complaints and a contractor engaged to monitor the issue said readings during the night were within permitted levels.

Murphy said there was also "good news on the rubbish front", with 45 cubic metres of waste and only 10 per cent going to landfill.

"They had a team of 40 people working on rubbish alone," he said.

"There were some toilet issues and in the future we are going to look at the layout of the toilets and at how many portaloos we include alongside our fixed toilets just to cope with capacity better."

The council confirmed it did have a financial investment in the concert – almost two years after Six60 appeared in front of a crowd estimated at more than 20,000 people at Tomoana Showgrounds, Hastings, on January 23, 2021.

"We did support the concert and contributed an amount to subsidise fixed costs but it is commercially sensitive," Murphy said.

While no further concerts are yet booked for the park, Hawke's Bay is set to stage two other major outdoor gigs over the summer, with L.A.B. at the showgrounds on January 21 and Sting returning for the Mission Estate concert on March 4.

Projections for a crowd size for the cricket now possibly hinge on events in Australia this week. New Zealand and India have made the semifinals of the Twenty20 World Cup (on Wednesday and Thursday) and could play in the final on Sunday.