Melanie Riley
PROJECT: Music South East launched this week following a partnership between MusicSA and the City of Mount Gambier.
The year-long regional live music activation program will focus on the revitalisation and enhancement of the live music scene in the Mount Gambier/Berrin area.
The live music industry took a hit during the pandemic and the program aims to support local small businesses to be able to continue to support live music at an increased capacity.
Connecting local and touring artists with venues, driving audience development, and supporting the activation of a new music venue in Mount Gambier will be at the forefront of the project.
City of Mount Gambier mayor Lynette Martin said the project came to fruition after industry recommendations from council’s Live Music Roundtable and further engagement with the community.
“Recently, through our engagement with the community with Mount Gambier 2035, it became clear that the community wants city vibrancy and they want annual event calendars,” Ms Martin said.
“MusicSA and the City of Mount Gambier will work with over seven local live music venues, local and national artists and stakeholders over the length of the project to rebuild a regional live music community supported by active venues and healthy audiences.
“The program will focus support towards small venues such as the Limestone Coast Pantry, Woolstore Brewery and Metro Bakery and Cafe – these are people that do foster live music anyway in our community,” Ms Martin said.
“It will also provide an opportunity to focus on supporting live music performance at Wulanda – we’ve got all the facilities there so it will assist with that.
“The intention is to evaluate the role and position of Mount Gambier as an important contributor to the rebuilding of regional touring for South Australia.”
The project would provide training, mentorship, business plans for the project period, PR, marketing, audience development, technical advice and programming for both local and interstate artists.
Ms Martin said the 12 month program at this stage was a one-off project, but there would be room for reapplication in the future.
“Once we start and if we have success in that time, we will be able to build on it in the future,” she said.
“It is very exciting and to provide that assistance for our local businesses is a real plus.
“It will support a small business and then hopefully put them in a position to take advantage of their learnings, and then we can grow the live music industry in Mount Gambier from there and make it sustainable.”
Chief executive officer of MusicSA, Christine Schloithe said she was excited about the collaboration and hoped both small businesses and artists would benefit from the investment of Project: Music South East.
“We know anyone who has an interest in live music will be very aware of an ongoing conversation nationally and internationally about how difficult it is for small to medium dedicated live music venues to trade at the moment,” Ms Schloithe said.
As part of the program, the organisation would engage a dedicated Regional Venue Coordinator, who will work directly with the City of Mount Gambier, local venues and local artists to leverage new relationships with event and festival stakeholders to further expand opportunities for venues in the Limestone Coast.
A group of industry experts would also visit the Limestone Coast a number of times in the 12 month period and educate live venues about models of operation, how to effectively market shows and audience development to ensure they can best support artists.
“On the flip side of that we will also be doing a range of work over the next 12 months with artists based in and around the Limestone Coast to help prepare them for live performances,” Ms Schloithe said.
“To connect them with performance venues they may not already be connected with, and help drive their own profile and identity through PR skills and marketing skills and even developing electronic press kits.”
Ms Schloithe said the project was modelled from the work MusicSA does in and around Adelaide already, and said the aim was to expand further out into regional areas.
MusicSA would be working with events such as Generations in Jazz and the Beer and BBQ festival to increase exposure of the events and artists involved.
Ms Schloithe said she was particularly excited about the refurbishment of the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre and its 2000 person capacity as a commercial music venue.
“One of the things we will be doing over the next 12 months is working very directly with council to explore some models of venue operation that are viable for council and the local community to make sure this venue succeeds,” she said.
“Because it’s got the commercial capacity that it does, we think that we can build connections into Victoria and SA touring markets and reopen that live music touring corridor between Melbourne and Adelaide.
“Regional areas often get skipped over when it comes to touring, so anything we can do to increase that capacity will make a huge difference to businesses and audiences.”
The next steps for the project will be MusicSA representatives visiting the region to meet with the City of Mount Gambier, local event organisers, venues and artists.
Ms Schloithe said the aim at MusicSA was to make the program as accessible as possible to anyone with an interest in live music to ensure they do not miss the opportunity to benefit from the project.
“That level of excitement about seeing new artists is really the bedrock of what live music is about – it’s about being in that space and seeing artists be amazing on stage and sharing with other people,” she said.
“The live component is a feeling you don’t get from any other kind of engagement.”
More information on how to get involved with Project: Music South East will be released soon.
