Swampfest

Swampfest is an annual musical festival that showcases Palmerston North bands. Swampfest was originally timed to coincide with New Zealand Music Month (May), but in 2009 Switched to September to match The Stomach's 21st birthday. Swampfest is known for showcasing up-and-coming as well as established artists, all from the Palmerston North area, and the artists must play original music. The music played is often guitar based and of the Rock genre however punk, ska, electronic, hip hop, metal, pop, solo and acoustic have all featured in the festival.

The festival is named after Palmerston North's primordial origins as a swamp.

Location

Swampfest in 2004 and 2005 were held at The Guv'nors Tavern. Swampfest in 2006 and 2007 was held at The Globe Theatre, Palmerston North. There was no Swampfest in 2008 due to the Stomach building being refurbished. Swampfest 2009 was held at the Stomach. Due to a cut in operating funding, there was no Swampfest in 2010. Swampfest'11 was held at The Stomach, The Regent Theatre, JBHiFi, and alternative venues. Swampfest 2012 was held at The Regent Theatre, The Stomach, The Royal and other locations. Swampfest 2013 was held at The Regent Theatre, The Stomach, The Dark Room and The Square. Venues and lineups for Swampfest 2014 are yet to be announced, and will commence in October 2014.

Organisation

Creative Sounds and the staff of the The Stomach are the main co-ordinators behind the event.

History

Local musician Murray Shaw (Turbostill/Bloodspray for Politics/Neckstretchers/Hellborne/Slave Collective-www.slave.co.nz) came up with the original name and concept (numerous local/original bands playing over multiple nights) for SwampFest. He decided not to pursue it, and two other local musicians, Craig Black and Hayden Sinclair oversaw the first two events.

Swampfest began in 2004 with 8 bands over two nights.^[1] This was held at The Guv'nors Tavern. Following the success of the first event, Swampfest'05 featured 12 bands over three nights.^[2]

To allow Swampfest to grow and involve more artists (and to take the financial burden off Black and Sinclair), from 2006 the event has been c-ordinated by Creative Sounds/The Stomach. The 2006/7 Swampfests were held at the Globe Theatre to allow for an All Ages audience in keeping with the objectives of Creative Sounds. Due to the complete refurbishment of The Stomach in 2008, staff were unable to co-ordinate a Swampfest that year. 2009 was the 21st year of operation for the Stomach, the birthday celebration was combined with Swampfest. Due to a funding cut, leading to staff redundancy, The Stomach was unable to co-ordinate a Swampfest that year.

With a strong sense of irony, The Stomach is able to relaunch Swampfest in 2011, due to funding gained from the Rugby World Cup regional events fund, administered by the Our People Our Place Trust.

The 2005/6/7 Swampfests were filmed and two songs from each performing band placed on a limited edition DVD. The four Stomach based show of Swampfest'11, will be webcast live.

Previous to Swampfest, Palmerston North music was celebrated with various incarnations of an annual music events, ranging from the The Intergalactic Balls of the early 90's, and various multimedia events culminated in the 1997 The Restless Festival of Youth which secured funding to run a variety of local events at different venues. The annual Restless Festival showcasing local talent evolved each year, and became the first live gig at the restored Regent Theatre, 1999's Cerebral Cortex embraced 17 local acts performing on the same night.