Sounds of the swamp return to city
Palmerston North music venue The Stomach didn’t have to look far to fill the programme for its upcoming music festival – musical talent walks through its doors daily.
Manager Harry Lilley said festival organisers took it back to its roots by returning to a lineup of gigs from local musicians over three weekends in October, starting tomorrow.
‘‘I can remember coming to Swampfest when I was younger and it was just this great swarm of activity and it was awesome, so now that I have my tentacles all wrapped up in it I kind of think it’s cool to just make lots of stuff happen.’’
Swampfest has been a longstanding event on the Palmerston North music scene and Lilley said he packed the lineup with interesting shows.
In nine gigs, more than 30 musicians will play in what Lilley says is a good spread of genres and people who are engaged with the local music scene at the moment.
‘‘There’s heaps going on in there. We don’t stake a claim over the whole music scene, but this is one of the cool outlets that we have.’’
Snails: Artist-run space, Us Studio, Halcyon, the Massey University concourse, The Square and Square Edge Community Arts Centre will all be involved and Lilley said they were all great, relaxed spaces. ‘‘In the general kind of cool DIY spirit akin to what most of the Palmerston North musicians are used to, we are doing lots of small shows.
‘‘We are using some really great partner venues, which is really fun because the Stomach loves putting stuff on here, but we love supporting all the other things around town.
‘‘We don’t exist in an isolated bubble.’’