The Ongoing Success of Chartfest in Christchurch (Festival Review)

31st May 2009 by Sharon Lingham
Recession may be a worldwide word but when it comes to New Zealand music, the news is all good here! Take for example, Chartfest which has just been held at Christchurch Town Hall on Friday, there seemed to be no shortage of patronage supporting the event.

The event started at 4.00pm so I went earlier as I had another function to attend and regretfully missed the concerts. I was very pleased to see the crowd, an amazing number of booths displaying musical products and services. The expo also included releasing your first own music, promotion, tours and more for the artists.
I was totally blown away by the number of under 10 ‘wannabes’ who did their best to impress too! And there has very brisk exchange of cards and ideas from would-be musicians.

Four stages with the main stage at the Auditorium, Acoustic staging at James Hay Theatre, Electro Stage in the conference room upstairs and Grassroots stage in the mezzanine. In its third year, Chartfest is a one stop musical expo aiming at music lovers to nurture, inspire and to support their talent. It is about exchanging ideas.

Jeff Fulton, founder of Chartfest, says the expo helps teach artists about how the music industry works. “It’s not just about playing the guitar or the drums. There are other parts of the music industry - running a venue, being a journalist, managing a band.” Jeff was on my show last week and it is people like him who made this event possible- like I said on the show-he is a great ambassador for music industry here in Canterbury!

Flip Grater, singer/songwriter, also on my Community Update television show agrees that Christchurch is thriving with talent. Ragmuffin Children-who are also on my show are simply superb!

Another Big Plus for the organisers of Chartfest (besides inspiring the young talent), was to have Canteen (young people 13-24 years old with cancer) at the event to profile and collect money for the voluntary organisation! Some actually performed at Rockonz recently.

Jacob Peters, of Awakened Inferno, says Chartfest is a good opportunity to perform in a large setting.It was his dream to perform at the Town Hall and that is now a reality. Christchurch is a breeding ground for musical talent, spawning such diverse acts as Scribe, Hayley Westenra, Opshop and Bic Runga. Brendon Smyth, from NZ on Air, says the industry is always looking to sign new artists so as to keep the music scene fresh.

If you love music, I suggest you support Chartfest annually and I hope that our local council continues to support  Chartfest!

Well done!

www.sharonlingham.com
www.chartfest.co.nz