Game Of Thrones is on everyone’s lips these days. In Australia, it is also one of the TV shows that a lot of Australian’s download via peer-to-peer networks. With such a high piracy rate of people obtaining their content for free, you wouldn’t expect people to spend a decent amount of money to travel large distances and queue outside a Game of Thrones exhibition in Sydney.

But that is exactly what happened. Even though the exhibition is for free, the fans of the show spent their hard-earned dollars to get to the venue and then spend their time waiting to get in.

On opening day, people waited for six hours to get in. See what happens when a TV show is available to all even though it is meant to be locked up behind paywalls. You get people queuing up for days on end just to see the Iron Throne. This is the world we live in today, where a TV show based on a cult novel is bigger than a rock star. It used to be that people queued in lines like this for their favourite act.

And in this case the term groupie involves everyone. Teenagers to the elderly and moms and dads and their obsession for the series is all at different levels. And super fans paid above $500 in travel related expenses to be at the exhibition. It’s like when your favourite band comes to town and you fork out your cash for Meet and Greets and VIP passes.

No one could have predicted that George R.R. Martin would have created a cultural phenomenon. However as good as the stories are from Martin, it is the visual aspect from the TV show that is overseen by the show runners that is causing the cultural impact. Plus the casting of Sean Bean in Season 1 as Eddard Stark was a master stroke.

And as much as the Corporations moan and complain about piracy taking away from the artists or the creators, what piracy is showing is that people from all over the world can access and be involved with a cultural phenomenon. Piracy leads to greater opportunities.

If Game Of Thrones was a rock band and the band had those levels of piracy, expect their shows to sell out in minutes.

If Game Of Thrones was a rock band and the band is doing a free show like the GOT exhibition then expect pandemonium to ensure.