Outdoor Music venue - inclusive for all ages Let's make Kapiti a hothouse for original music!

CURRENT ISSUES:

VENUES:

On the Kapiti Coast, original music artists have nowhere to share their music! There are of course pub venues, but these are not family friendly, they require you to spend money on drinks and food, and are often loud and late, thereby excluding a big chunk of the community. Most venues expect bands to play Cover songs - these cover bands are not supporting original music development - in fact they are taking slots from those that do write their own music.

KCDC halls were built in excess of 70 years + ago, and were designed for tea's, suppers, community meetings. When music is held in them, the noise exhaustion from lack of acoustics is well, exhausting!

We've been involved in original music on the coast for years now and as an interested group, believe the HANDS DOWN BEST VENUE for original music, that is accessible by a much larger section of the community is... the public toilets area (Yankee Trail area), in Paekakariki, near the campground. It already has power, including 3 phase power. Another great location would be the Raumati Gardens (in the bowl, between Waterfront pub and kids playground). Great daytime and 'into the evening' venues that have space for food trucks, have space for attendees to pitch shelters, throw rugs, byo food and drink, (we don't care if no alcohol! - but what are the rules?), bring the family.

WHAT'S NEEDED FROM KCDC:

What these area's require is permanent covered staging and power. These spaces could be rented, just like the halls are. Being covered would open up sooo much more opportunity to organise events without the ever present threat of 'cancelled due to weather' that we have in Kapiti! We appreciate any new structure needs to be vandal proof, but there is nothing stopping them from being multi-use, a covered area for inclement weather use (when not being used for music events that is!).

Not to throw a negative, but, given the lack of investment by council in any new venue infrastructure in, like forever - we think it's overdue.

Having 1 (or 2) new outdoor venues that can be hired, negates the need to apply for funding (during limited funding rounds, for limited funds), which requires much bureaucratic hoop jumping, and MUCH more work by the organisers to then sort out shelter, generators, permissions, staging etc, all with the possibility of cancelling due to weather.

If we could have only 1 item on our Wishlist, this would be it.

But I'll add more, because it's now or not for another 5 years right!

BUREAUCRACY:

We would love KCDC to have an appointed contact when organising events. Name/mobile phone number/email. So that if things are not as expected, faulty etc, they can be contacted for support - when it's needed.

GROWING KAPITI'S MUSIC ARTIST BASE

A separate 'Whats On' page on the KCDC website that is dedicated to Entertainment (music, theatre, stand-up etc) events that are upcoming (as fed by EventFinder currently, but separated from the other community events).