Irish flavour attracts fans to Coastella
The promise of authentic Irish music has seen about half of Coastella’s tickets sold already.
About 1000 tickets have been sold to the annual music festival at Southward Car Museum on the Kapiti Coast, with 2000 up for grabs altogether.
Last year’s inaugural festival saw about 1000 patrons come through the gates in total.
Festival director Gerry Paul said he was delighted with the strong response.
‘‘Expect this second year of the festival to reach a whole new level in terms of numbers, putting Coastella on the map as one of the summer music festivals not to be missed.’’
He said last year’s festival attracted patrons from Wellington, Wairarapa and beyond.
A trio of Irish acts headline the lineup, with singer-songwriter Mundy joined by ALDOC and The Seamus Begley Trio.
Paul said they would get the crowd’s feet tapping.
‘‘It’s not your plastic paddy, shake-your-shamrock-type stuff. It’s really high-calibre music.
‘‘It’s really exciting to have them on board.’’
Paul said he would like each festival to feature a specific type of music.
He said he could not think of a better area to start with than Ireland, having been born in Dublin, lived in Ireland for 13 years and toured with Irish band Grada as their guitarist.
Swedish, Canadian and Americana music were being considered as themes for the coming years, he said.
The lineup also features local favourites, with a strong Kapiti influence.
Paekakariki-based folk group Eb and Sparrow, Raumati guitarist Phaeton and 10-piece hiphop group Raw Collective, which had a strong Kapiti contingent, will all be performing.
Wellington band The Phoenix Foundation will also perform.
Paul said food at last year’s festival ran low, so the organisers of Wellington on a Plate were picking 10 of the region’s best vendors to attend the festival.
Pre-sale tickets can be bought from Eventfinda until February 24, or sold out.
The festival is at Southward Car Museum on February 25. The doors open at 1pm, with performances from 2pm.