A 15-day music festival will "rock" the 2018 Australian Open as tournament execs "set their sights" on a A$500M ($389.5M) "benefit to the state economy," according to Peter Rolfe of the HERALD SUN. Six extra days of music by int'l and Australian acts "will accompany the Melbourne grand slam, headlined by a fundraiser for motor neurone disease research the day before the tournament starts." A world-best A$55M ($42.8M) prize pool will be awarded to players, including a record A$4M ($3.1M) to the singles winners. A new children's zone "four times bigger than usual" will include a 60m two-person zipline, as well as Lego and Nerf zones. This year's Open poured A$278.1M into the Victorian economy, up from A$245.5M in '14 and almost a 70% increase from '08. Australian Open Tournament Dir Craig Tiley hopes to break the A$500M mark "within five years" as the tournament expands in size, crowd figures and int'l appeal. Tiley said, "We've in essence become a music festival at the same time, and then of course there is food." Rockpool Dining and Nobu pop-up restaurants will operate onsite, as well as Mamasita, Gazi, San Antone, Biggie Smalls by Shane Delia and Burger Project. Acts for the music festival, to be staged on Middle Terrace at Birrarung Marr, are "expected to be announced in coming weeks" (HERALD SUN, 10/10).
