Tim Minchin announces rescheduled Perth Festival concerts

As Tim Minchin unveils new dates for his two sold-out performances with the WA Symphony Orchestra at Kings Park, the Perth-raised superstar has also revealed he almost abandoned the home town shows altogether.

The 45-year-old entertainer was due to perform to 5300 fans at each of two world-premiere gigs for the Perth Festival last weekend, but postponed the concerts as the snap five-day lockdown prevented rehearsals and adequate preparation.

The new dates are Saturday, February 20 and Sunday, February 21.

Today Minchin revealed he almost canned the shows, which follow the release of his debut major label album, Apart Together, late last year.

“When that poor young security guard tested positive, I had only been out of quarantine for a couple of days,” he said.

“My first instinct was to go, ‘bugger this’, and just hop on a plane and get back to my kids.”

My first instinct was to go, ‘bugger this’.

Minchin added that he decided to stay in Perth and reschedule the shows, trusting that West Australians would do these best to prevent any further cases.

“I hesitated though, because as a man who loves a bakery, I know a solid number of consecutive days of doughnuts is possible,” he joked.

“And a friend of (Festival artistic director) Iain Grandage and Perth Festival, I knew the expertise and will would be to try to reschedule very quickly, should those doughnuts line up.

“And line-up they did.

“It’s hard to describe how complex it is to shift a concert of this size in such a short time, but they’ve done it.

“Hope you can all still come.”

Minchin’s rescheduled concerts fall within the new dates of Perth Festival, which was shifted back a fortnight to avoid COVID-19 restrictions and now runs from February 15 to March 14.

The Festival will contact ticket-holders and there is no need to call or email the box office.