Festival likely to be back
The organisers of Timaru’s inaugural Soundsplash music festival are hailing it a success and have signalled it is likely to return in 2021.
Promoter Sam Heath said about 2500 people attended the three-day festival featuring a mix of more than 40 New Zealand and international acts across three main stages.
About 1800 tickets had been sold for Friday and 2000 for Saturday, Heath said.
And while their initial target of 4000 ticket sales did not eventuate, Heath said the event – which was consented for a crowd of 8000 – was likely to be held again in Timaru.
‘‘At this stage it is looking like it is coming back,’’ he said.
Heath said Caroline Bay was a ‘‘perfect site’’ for a music festival with stages in the Soundshell, rotunda and Caroline Bay Hall.
‘‘The highlights were seeing that it was a really good site to work with, while stakeholders including police and council were also easy to work with.
‘‘It was disappointing to see the amount of people who tried to get drugs in . . .’’
Sergeant Sam Winchester
‘‘Everyone was in good spirits with positive feedback.’’
Heath said organisers had met with police, liquor licensing staff and St John for a briefing on Saturday and the response had been positive.
‘‘To be honest, for the first year, it has been smooth running and a good platform to build on.
‘‘There has been a lot of positive feedback from the artists.’’
Heath said there would be some ‘‘minor tweaks to make the site run better’’ in 2021.
‘‘The venue was perfect, it was a success.’’
Police officer in charge of the Soundsplash operation, Sergeant Sam Winchester, said concertgoers were generally well behaved with four arrested.
One was arrested for assault, two for disorderly behaviour and one for trespass, he said.
Three were later released without charge, Winchester said.
‘‘Intoxication levels were well managed by staff at the event.
‘‘All the organisation of the event was well done, it was a success for Timaru.’’
However, Winchester said security staff had raised concerns about the number of people trying to bring drugs into the event.
‘‘It was disappointing to see the amount of people who tried to get drugs into the event.
‘‘Security did a good job of stopping people and confiscating drugs. Drug use inside the venue was not an issue,’’ he said.
Timaru District mayor Nigel Bowen attended the event on Friday and Saturday with his family and was impressed.
‘‘The kids loved it. My girls are 10 and 13 and they were pretty excited to see Stan Walker and Mitch James among others.
‘‘It was great to see so many people from all ages enjoying an awesome event at the Bay and we look forward to hosting the Soundsplash again in 2021.
‘‘I would also like to praise the organisers for having the confidence in Timaru as a venue and just like the Raglan event, it will grow over time,’’ Bowen said.
The Timaru event was run simultaneously with the sellout Soundsplash festival in Raglan, which has been running for more than 15 years.
‘‘It’s really positive for the local economy having people from out of district and it also shows the district is centrally located for events such as these, we look forward to many more,’’ he said.