One of the things I love about New Zealand is the huge support it gives its artists. Especially within music.

Every summer the council organises Music in Parks. Local acts, big & small with a wide variety of genres come together to preform. Offering the community free gigs to attend. A fantastic opportunity to be exposed to & experience local talent.

Following these events is the festival Homegrown. Set in Wellingtons waterfront it is New Zealand’s biggest music festival; with 6 stages and over 48 acts preforming. This year was the 10th anniversary!

A country all about inclusion; the government set up the organisation NZ On Air. This organisation helps local content to be aired on radio, TV & online. One of their funding elements is to give out grants each year to artists. One of the ways these grants are used is to create visuals for an artists new song. More details can be found here.

We then come into May, during this month radio stations were encouraged to play more local artists. Fast forward to today, Its become a 31 day celebration of kiwi music. New Zealand Music Month (NZMM) is your chance to go out and discover new talent, support local musicians and check out all the great gigs playing this month.

Go like NZMM Facebook page to keep up to date with whats going on. There are several venues dedicated to playing live music. I encourage you all to go to the Kings Arms before it shuts down next year & for those that are already customers of the place to sign this petition that as been made, due to the recent noise complaints residence have issued (more details about it here).

For those unable to attend any gigs. Spend the month consciously choosing to listen to more kiwi music then you might usually. Check out up and coming bands social media pages, give their stuff a listen. Buy an EP or album.

For those in London, there are several Kiwi musician’s living and preforming here. Check out The Cavemen, who have a show coming up in Brixton in June & The Eversons; as well as other artists who come & tour. Devilskin have just finished a tour & Fat Freddy’s Drop will be in Bristol at the end of the month & preforming in London in June!

Over the course of NZMM I’ll be going through my archives. Sharing story’s about my experience photographing within the music industry, images from gig’s, information & stories about artists I’ve worked with. 

In order not to miss out, click here to like & follow my Facebook page.