Set for a blast
Soundscape organiser say going back to the drawing board for this year’s event has paid dividends, with music lovers set for a big weekend.
Days before thousands of music lovers take to central Hamilton streets for Soundscape, organisers of the annual event say ticket sales are strong and they are on track for a large turnout.
Soundscape sold out last year with 4000 people attending. Organisers expect 5000 partygoers this time around.
Already 1600 tickets have been sold, compared to 700 at the same time last year.
Organiser Greg Stack said taking a hard look at previous events made the difference.
He said he and fellow organiser James Lawless went “back to the drawing board”.
“We pulled apart everything we had done and asked ourselves how we could do better.
“It was quite a hard hitting task and we didn’t like all the answers we came back with but it has allowed us to grow a lot.”
More than 50 acts are lined up for the music festival, which will be held in the central city as part of Waikato University’s Orientation Week this Saturday, March 10. The event features eight zones of diverse music genres, and international talent playing alongside favourite New Zealand acts.
Alexandra Street will be closed off for the event and will feature stages on the street, carnival rides, food stalls and circus performers. Surrounding clubs Monkey Feather, Axces, 3204, Altitude and Gravity are also involved. This year Soundscape has a new zone called “The Warehouse UV zone”.
The Soundscape team seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to music choices. “Three years ago we had a dubstep room and I don’t think anyone actually knew what dubstep was at that point except all our DJ mates – and now look at the genre,.” Stack says. This time they have glitch hop producer K+Lab on board, “I can assure you that 99 per cent of people won’t even know what that style is.”
K+Lab is considered electro or house and is played at the same speed as hip hop.
Soundscape features live bands, dubstep, drum and bass, electro, commercial house, tech house, hip-hop and hard house.
This year’s line-up includes Kora, Zowie, Annah Mac, AC Slater (AUS), Bar9 (UK), State Of Mind + MC Woody, Carl Nicholson (UK), Redial (AUS), Distrakt (AUS), DJ Sambora (Shapeshifter), PMoney, DJ Sir-vere, PNC, Dan Aux, K+Lab, DJ Impact (2x New Zealand DMC champ), Knights Of The Dub Table, MC Bill E-Fluid, Beat Mafia, Justin Sane, Rich Carey, Jaycen Amour, Tronik DJs, Reservoir Dogs and many more.
The event has been granted a 4am liquor licence. Hamilton police say they are not expecting any issues.
Early bird, first release and student tickets to Soundscape have all sold out. Second release tickets are on sale now.
Tickets are available from www.1-night.co.nz/soundscape.
