Summer Happenings

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What to do? Where to go? Who to see?

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Saying there's quite a lot to do over summer is like saying there's quite a lot of sand on the beach. Taking into account Sweetwaters, the Big Day Out, WOMAD, the Warped Tour, The Gathering and various other less-hyped festivals and events happening around the country, it's clear that The Big Musical Event is back with a vengeance. Yet the pool of music lovers in NZ ain't that big - so should the promoters be worried about the competition? And what's more, how do we - the punters - choose where to blow our summer budgets? Waren Kristian investigates.

Question number one - can the NZ audience sustain so many large-scale events over a short period of time? I had a yarn to various promoters, and while all of them claim that they're catering to a unique audience, I notice that the smaller the event, the more the organisers pushed the point. And, despite some seriously noncholant attitudes, they're all keenly aware of the competition - as WOMAD's publicity material demonstrates: "...outstanding value when you consider the ticket covers over thirty hours of performance. It must be the year's best ticket buy when you compare it with the cost of a one off rock concert..."

Some, like Manolo Echave from Frontier Touring, organiser of the Warped Tour, tell me they're indifferent.

"We're not worried about what they choose, we're just putting on the event because we feel that it's very much in tune with the New Zealand lifestyle, people can come along to it if they want - it's up to them, we're not trying to force them along by any means."

Others, like Daniel Keighley, managing director of Sweetwaters, are aware but unconcerned. "I guess the music events happening over summer are very different. Not everybody will go to Sweetwaters. We're close to thirty thousand of the forty thousand we're allowed already so I doubt we'll have a problem filling it up. In terms of the other events that are happening, WOMAD is a particular style of festival that probably complements Sweetwaters, as does the Big Day Out. Neither of them have a similar musical direction and neither of them are festivals where you can go and camp and hang out with people for a four day period."

Apart from The Gathering, but that's in Nelson and targets a different group of people again. Talking to Alison Green, one of the directors of said event, is almost like attending a religious meeting (although it's not an unpleasant experience, I hasten to add). She talks of "unity through diversity", "existentialism" and a "fundamental vision".

The Gathering is more than a festival, she says, it's a shared trip through forty eight hours to welcome in the New Year. Yahoo.

"It's 10,000 people up on top of a hill in an incredibly beautiful environment outdoors celebrating the New Year. If you want to see it another way it's a whole bunch of people meeting up with their friends who they might not see from one end of the year to the next and making a whole bunch of new ones. And if you want to look at it another way it's an extremely rocking and damn fine party, the experience of which in a lot of ways affect people quite deeply. I'm getting mail all the time from people overseas e-mailing and saying 'I just wanted to get in touch with you and tell you thank you for an event that changed my life.' And when you get emails like that that's quite a responsibility really, it's quite an amazing piece of feedback.

"I think all of the musical events that are happening this summer appeal to a slightly different group of people. There are overlaps but I think we all have a niche. What The Gathering provides is not just one night of entertainment, it provides a whole dawn to dusk twice over, an experience. It's not just a party, it's creating a community in the middle of nowhere, it's a coming together and seeing the new year in and lots of other bits of that type of thing with a group of people who are all feeling the same way as you are. It's non-alcohol which makes a big difference, it's a very caring environment, it's very joyful."

Which would seem to exemplify the polar opposite to the Big Day Out's philosophy - namely, 'the bigger they are, the more there'll be.' People, that is. With a host of Godzilla sized rock stars, BDO organisers aren't stressed about the competition.

"To an extent it runs like clockwork, but this year part of the reason for having a break for a year is to do some new stuff," says Nikki Tysall, publicist for the BDO. "You could just roll out the Big Day Out again and it would be very very busy, but we wanted to do something different so that when people get to the site they say 'this is cool, this looks great, haven't seen that before.' Obviously the boiler room (a huge dance music tent) is part of that. The event starts off with (co-worker) Bridget and I organising everything, and then as it progresses we start taking on more and more help - site managers and production managers and all that kind of stuff."

And those huge acts?

"Obviously we're really pleased to have Hole and Marilyn Manson. Courtney Love was here in '95 and everyone remembers that legendary show, so it's good to have her back. We've got a dance tent for the first time so I'm really happy personally to have Fatboy Slim and Roni Size there, and it's also great to have Bic Runga. She's coming back to do the Big Day Out as her only show, which I think is really exciting. We've tried not to single out acts, it's never about having a headline act, it's more about them all going together into the pot to make the Big Day Out."

Arguable point.

Still, it's not just the Big Day Out who try the 'event' tack - the 'if you weren't there you really missed something' line. Daniel Keighley stresses that his operation is a festival. And when you take into account the duration of the Sweetwaters event, the family camping vibe and the history, he's qualified to make that call. However, the 'happening', unified atmosphere which was first experienced in the sixties is indefinable, it's valuable, it's free - but it can't be predicted. It's precisely what makes an event truly memorable, and it's the feel that promoters are trying to cultivate.

"The festival is just that - a festival, it was established in the late seventies/early eighties largely as a performance festival relating to pop and rock music," Keighley says. "Now it's perhaps a little bit broader in that it's every kind of performance you could imagine. And it's more than just performance too, probably a good half of the festival relates not just to music whether it be international or national, but to arts and crafts, alternative technologies, alternative medical methodologies - almost all the things that relate to a new generation."

The Warped Tour provides that atmosphere as well, according to Manolo Echave. "It's just the young healthy New Zealand market basically, the people that come along range from thirteen to early twenties. It's always been run as an alcohol free event and that doesn't bother them. They're much more into enjoying themselves skating and surfing than getting pissed."

Record shops and skating and surf shops around the North Island

WOMAD:

Ticketek outlets

Pulp, Christmas 1998

The Gathering - New Years 98/99 - The Gathering Archives