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by Jessica Allen - Lakes Weekly Bulletin

As the dust settles on the Summer Concert at Gibbston Valley and the reality of them needing to find a new venue sets in, it makes me wonder about Queenstown’s music scene. A lot of festivals across the ditch and here in New Zealand are taking a hiatus or shutting up shop altogether, so could we do more as a community to revive the music scene? Surely any band would be more than happy to explore this beautiful town!

I read recently that the boss of Christchurch’s new stadium reckons big acts will only play in one South Island city and that Dunedin will lose out – what’s with the competition, and should we get in on this? Using events such as Snow Machine and Mardi Gras as an example, we know we have the capacity, so what’s stopping us from giving it a red-hot go?

Places like Yonder are doing a great job at bringing small-medium sized bands over, but what about bigger acts, beyond just music too – we want comedians, more arts and more culture. Alien Weaponry recently announced a gig out at AJ Hackett and Wānaka Festival of Colour is bringing some awesome acts to our region, but I feel that’s not enough.

I know through my arts and culture reporting that many artists are put off (or told not to come by booking agents) because of the huge costs to perform here. I’m not talking about food and accommodation, but actual venue-hire costs. A big-name artist who performed here last year told me they’d never been able to play Queenstown before because it was just too bloody expensive, and that this time they’d told their booking agent to go ahead because they wanted to come here regardless. They also said that they were almost certainly at a loss.

My challenge to local venues is to make this more accessible for acts – isn’t an event at your venue bringing people in at a lower revenue for you better than having no event at all? As a born-and-bred Sydney girl, who lived in Europe for a year, hopped over to Christchurch for a few before settling here, I crave and miss being spoilt for choice when it comes to the arts.

Cold Chisel, ICEHOUSE, Bic Runga and Everclear played an awesome show – the gig was great! But surely, it’s time that we bring artists here that aren’t either DJs, EDM, or musicians that (arguably) might have passed their heyday. If us locals are willing to travel halfway around the country to see big bands, why can’t they come here to enjoy our spectacular mountainous backdrops and support local businesses?