The decision to open shops over Easter was a success for Dunedin, the city's Mayor says.
The Ed Sheeran mural in Dunedin Photo: Supplied
About 68,000 people visited Dunedin over the weekend, brought in by the Ed Sheeran concerts.
Because of the influx, the Dunedin City Council allowed the town to trade on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
This is the first year councils have been given the authority to make this decision.
Dave Cull said the decision to trade was a one-off.
"In terms of the overall impression of having all the shops open over the weekend it's deemed to have been a great success.
It would have been a poor move to have them closed over the weekend, he said.
"Clearly this was an exceptional influx, that's more than half of the Dunedin population, and we realised that if we had half the town closed down and that number of people were around it wouldn't be a great feel or a great look so we scheduled a lot of extra events and extra offerings so it does show that when we do an event, we do it really well."
He said they would be reviewing whether or not trading over Easter would continue next year.
"When we made the decision that we would allow it we said at the time we would do a review to see how it would go, and clearly we haven't had time to do that yet, but that will follow and that will be around any issues around employees being expected to work when they oughtn't have been and that sort of thing."
He said they did not have exact figures yet on how much money had been brought into the city. It was previously estimated at around $34 million.
