The Wiggles (lost video recordings from Wonderland Sydney concert; 2001)

The Wiggles performing at the Golden Nugget Theatre in Wonderland Sydney.

Status: Lost

Wonderland Sydney is a now-defunct amusement park in Sydney, Australia that operational between December 7, 1985^[1] and April 26, 2004^[2]. It was the premier theme park in New South Wales during its lifespan. The park closed in 2004 and CEO Stephen Galbraith said that the September 11 attacks, Bali bombings, the closure of HIH Insurance, the SARS pandemic, bird flu, consistent losses on the Asian financial crisis, the closure of Ansett Australia, the Iraq War and the 2003 bushfires were the causes of the park's closure, while the Sydney Morning Herald said that poor management was the cause of the park's closure^[3].

History

Message board screenshot revealing the existence of a recording.

The park was host to the Kidz Fest that ABC Kids held during the 1990s and the Australian children's group The Wiggles were a frequent act at the Kidz Fest and would even perform at the park's Golden Nugget Theatre during their cross-country tours of Australia for the rest of the 1990s, they would perform at the park for the last time on April 16, 2001.

This performance came off the heels of the Yule Be Wiggling Christmas show just four months earlier^[4] and were on tour promoting their album "It's A Wiggly, Wiggly World"^[5] which came out a year earlier. It would also mark the only time the song "John Bradlelum" would be performed and the last time "Wiggly Medley" would be performed in Australia.

Availability

Photos of the concert were posted to the group's website and have since been archived^[6], given some insight to what was in the setlist. It's unknown if the concert was professionally recorded, but a comment from an audience member the day after the concert said on the WigglesWorld message board that they took "like 200 photos and an hours length of home-video tape."^[7] Aside from the photos posted on The Wiggles' website, no footage from the concert has been found.