The Star: March 02, 2023

The Star Thursday March 2 2023
18
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Big effort behind music festival
• By Darryl Baser
WHEN THE Selwyn Sounds
music festival starts at 11am on
Saturday at Lincoln Domain, 10
truckloads of gear weighing 70
tonnes will be in place.
Event director David Parlane
says the crew has spent the
last week erecting fencing and
preparing the venue to welcome
the crowd.
“We will be at capacity on
Saturday,” he said. “It’s all
consuming at the moment, but all
is calm and everything is falling
into place at it should.”
The main stage was in at 6am
on Monday, fresh from being
used at Electric Avenue in Hagley
Park over the weekend.
“As soon as it finished on
Saturday evening the stage was
dismantled. It is on two very large
trucks and once the trucks are in
place, supports are put down, and
the roof gets put on. It is a two
day job to get the stage in place
before we can start hanging lights,
speakers, screens all those sorts of
things.”
“It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle,
you’ve got to start with the edges
then you’ve got to work your way
around.”
Parlane and his business
partner launched Selwyn Sounds
in 2017. Covid-19 restrictions
forced the festival to be cancelled
a month before it was to take
place last year. Parlane said even
though the team has run the
event successfully over the years
it has gone ahead, there is never
room for complacency.
To make events like this run
like clockwork there is more
going on in the preparation which
members of the public generally
never see. Sound checks for
example. All bands except Blam
Blam Blam will have arrived by
Friday morning and are spending
the day at the venue making sure
they will sound the best they can
to give fans a great experience.
“The first sound check is
11.30am Friday and the last is due
to be 7.30 that night, depending
on when bands are arriving.”
Blam Blam Blam are due
to arrive very early Saturday
morning and Parlane said they
will have time for a “line check”
before general admission gates
open at 10am.
There will 34 food vendors on
site during the day, with “more
than 200 people will be working
LINE-UP:
Zephyr,
Blam Blam
Blam, Greg
Johnson,
Stellar*,
Mi-Sex, Gin
Wigmore,
Sir Dave
Dobbyn,
and the
Hoodoo
Gurus are
set to play
at Selwyn
Sounds.
PHOTO:
SHANE
JONES
at the event on the day.”
The team will return to the
venue early on Sunday morning
and take two days to fully pack
up. “You wouldn’t know there had
even been a festival there. A week
to pack it in, and a couple of days
to pack it out,” Parlane said.
•For more information, visit
www.selwynsounds.co.nz
We’re
strengthening
our electricity
network
Orion is installing a new 66kV underground power
cable at the intersection of Ferry Road and Hargood
Street, as part of a major project we are undertaking
in Christchurch city to replace older cables.
We will have traffic management in place as we are laying these
cables. There may be traffic delays on Ferry Road, near Hargood
Street, until mid-March. These are essential upgrades to the
network, to enhance the resilience and security of the network.
Please allow extra time for your journey and follow all signage and
instructions from our team on site. Thank you for your patience.
Find out more about this essential project:
haveyoursay.oriongroup.co.nz