SwampFest is an annual musical festival that showcases Palmerston North

Palmerston North

Palmerston North is the main city of the Manawatu-Wanganui region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is an inland city with a population of and is the country's seventh largest city and eighth largest urban area. Palmerston North is located in the eastern Manawatu Plains near the north bank...

 bands. SF was originally timed to coincide with New Zealand Music Month (May), but in 2009 Switched to September to match The Stomach's 21st birthday. SF is known for showcasing up-and-coming as well as established artists, all from the Palmerston North area, and the artists must play original music. The music played is often guitar based and of the Rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 genre however Punk

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, Ska

Ska

Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

, Electronic

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

, Hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

, Metal, Pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

, Solo and Acoustic

Acoustic music

Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...

 have all featured in the festival.

The festival is named after Palmerston North

Palmerston North

Palmerston North is the main city of the Manawatu-Wanganui region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is an inland city with a population of and is the country's seventh largest city and eighth largest urban area. Palmerston North is located in the eastern Manawatu Plains near the north bank...

's primordial origins as a swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

.

Location

SF in 2004 and 2005 were held at The Guv'nors Tavern. SF in 2006 and 2007 was held at The Globe Theatre, Palmerston North. There was no SF in 2008 due to the Stomach building being refurbished. SF 2009 was held at the Stomach. Due to a cut in operating funding, there was no SF in 2010. SF'11 is being held at The Stomach, The Regent Theatre, JBHiFi, and alternative venues.

Organisation

Creative Sounds and the staff of the The Stomach are the main co-ordinators behind the event.

History

Local musician Murray Shaw (Turbostill/Bloodspray for Politics/Neckstretchers/Hellborne/Slave Collective-www.slave.co.nz) came up with the original name and concept (numerous local/original bands playing over multiple nights) for SwampFest. He decided not to pursue it, and two other local musicians, Craig Black and Hayden Sinclair oversaw the first two events.

SF began in 2004 with 8 bands over two nights. This was held at The Guv'nors Tavern. Following the success of the first event, SF'05 featured 12 bands over three nights.

To allow SF to grow and involve more artists (and to take the financial burden off Black and Sinclair) , from 2006 the event has been c-ordinated by Creative Sounds/The Stomach. The 2006/7 SFs were held at the Globe Theatre to allow for an All Ages audience in keeping with the objectives of Creative Sounds. Due to the complete refurbishment of The Stomach in 2008, staff were unable to co-ordinate a SF that year. 2009 was the 21st year of operation for the Stomach, the birthday celebration was combined with SF. Due to a funding cut, leading to staff redundancy, The Stomach was unable to co-ordinate a SF that year.

With a strong sense of irony, The Stomach is able to relaunch SwampFest in 2011, due to funding gained from the Rugby World Cup regional events fund, administered by the Our People Our Place Trust.

The 2005/6/7 SFs were filmed and two songs from each performing band placed on a limited edition DVD.
The four Stomach based show of SF'11, will be webcast live.

Previous to Swampfest, Palmerston North music was celebrated with various incarnations of an annual music events, ranging from the The Intergalactic Balls of the early 90's, and various multimedia events culminated in the 1997 The Restless Festival of Youth which secured funding to run a variety of local events at different venues. The annual Restless Festival showcasing local talent evolved each year, and became the first live gig at the restored Regent Theatre, 1999's Cerebral Cortex embraced 17 local acts performing on the same night.

Lineups

2004

• 7.62 Short
• Collapse
• Faker
• Hellborne
• Hoopla!
• Reflector
• Stitchface
• Wall Of Silents

2005

• The Bing Turkby Ensemble
• Black Chrome
• Cathedra
• Collapse
• Dub Arkestra
• Hellborne
• Hoopla!
• Impish
• Reflector
• Scourge Of Tussin
• Stitchface
• Velvetine Black

2006

• Bing Turkby Ensemble
• Black Chrome
• Collapse
• Emmilies Illusion
• Grayson Gilmour
• Hellborne
• The Livids
• Reflector
• Stiletto
• Stitchface
• Twice Daily
• Wall Of Silents

2007

• Bing Turkby Ensemble
• Black Chrome
• The B-Side Electro Funk Disaster
• Cathedra
• Cord Willis
• The Godfrees
• Hoopla!
• Little Room
• The Livids
• The Particulars
• Us As Robots
• Wall Of Silents

2009

• Massacre the Weak
• Ricki Bobbi
• Joe Hill
• Scarkiss
• Solfonic
• Black Chrome
• The Kleptics
• The Nerines
• National Office
• David Stevens
• The Excludents
• Haluciagea
• Nutella Monk
• Bing Turkby Ensemble
• The Postures
• Ruski
• Us As Robots

External links

• SwampFestNZ SwampFest on Facebook
• Creative Sounds Society Incorporated - Organiser of the Swampfest festival
• Swampfest 2005 - Review by NZ Musician
• Swampfest 2004 - Review by NZ Musician
• Student City Swampfest Info Page