FAST & FLASHY
NEW BUSKERS FESTIVAL BOSS
If you search The Press picture archive for Leyton Tremain, you find a picture of him running while dressed as comic book superhero The Flash.
He certainly chose the right costume for the charity race – like the superhero, Tremain moves at a million miles an hour.
The new manager of the World Buskers Festival talks very fast and with great enthusiasm. It is hard to keep up as he flits from subject to subject over a hot chocolate in the Re:Start mall, but his basic story goes something like this.
He fell in love with running when he was four years old growing up in Avonhead and soon harboured dreams of representing his country at athletics.
When he was about 18 he represented New Zealand in an Australian road race, but it went very badly and he ended up in hospital.
He says the incident ‘‘dented’’ his enthusiasm for running for about six weeks. It was during that six weeks, while on a break from studying podiatry, that he got a summer job in sales and discovered his second love.
‘‘In that six weeks I fell in love with the crazy world of sales,’’ he said.
‘‘I was really enjoying podiatry, but I really loved the challenge of sales and the vibrancy of it and meeting lots of people. Coming from a sporting background, I enjoy being competitive and results driven. It caught me off guard and here I am.’’
Tremain never returned to podiatry and plunged into the world of sales. For the last 11 years he has been sponsorship manager for footwear company New Balance.
Christchurch City Council events manager Richard Stokes said Tremain was enlisted to manage the sponsorship and business side of the buskers festival.
‘‘We were after someone who was a business manager. We have got a strong team on the talent and creative side so we wanted to develop and manage the business side.’’
Tremain’s events management experience comes from his passion for athletics. During his time at New Balance, he started organising athletics events in his spare time. He called Kiwi athlete Nick Willis after he won his silver medal at the Beijing Olympics to see if he was interested in a track meet.
‘‘New Balance is a great company, but I got all my stimulation from the track meet.’’
‘‘Nick Willis wanted to come back to New Zealand and compete but there was nothing to come to. There wasn’t the standard of competition. I rang him up and 12 weeks later we had our first event.’’
He sees parallels between the track meets and the buskers festival.
‘‘The track meets mirror the buskers festival. It was basically about trying to develop New Zealand’s best athletes and raise the profile of our athletes . . . The values of the events are about attendance, participation and community spirit. It celebrates diversity and is very inclusive. It says life is serious, but don’t take it too seriously.’’
Like The Flash, Tremain has a lot of energy. He has packed a lot into his 36 years. He hasn’t had a drink in 11 years and doesn’t touch caffeine. His only vice is chocolate.
‘‘I’m not very by the book. I am my own person. I don’t work nine to five. If the work has to be done I do it,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m fascinated with pushing the body. Now I do it by working hard and not sleeping, rather than running. I go really hard for about eight weeks and then I amuseless for four days. I survive for weeks without the recommended daily intake of sleep. I’m too lazy to go to bed.’’
He lives in a tilt slab, former commercial building in Woolston. It has an office downstairs so he can indulge his unusual working hours. He hopes to bring his unique work ethic and energy to the festival. ‘‘We want to keep it growing and get more people down there. I would love to see people from around the country coming down to experience it.’’
‘‘I’m excited to see the buskers in New Brighton. I think there is a real chance to expand the number of venues, within reason, to take it to the people a bit more and reach more people.’’
When he’s not working he relaxes with his 11-month-old daughter. ‘‘Christchurch will be such an amazing place for that generation.’’