Starved of live music venues, musos created own festival
In a city starved of live music venues, local artists have joined forces to create their own stage at a new independent festival.
The Cairns’ live music scene stepped out from the shadows over the weekend as independent artists joined forces to showcase their talents.
More than 150 people gathered at Cairns Cruising Yacht Squadron for the Anchor Drop 2 music festival on Saturday.
Featuring local bands, including Koahlition, Tullara and Phoebe Jacobs, the event created by Enter Stage Right, was designed as a platform for local artists at a time when finding live and independent music venues can be challenging.
Organiser Zane Stradling said there just weren’t many opportunities to see live music anymore.
“There’s Elixir bar, which is pretty much the only venue in town that is an independent venue that’s promoting live original music,” Mr Stradling said.
“But there’s not a lot of opportunities regularly in Cairns for sort of a bigger stage.
“There’s a lot of talent in Cairns but they are not getting a lot of places to play and there’s audiences who love original music and want to support it, but don’t have the opportunity.”
On the back of the event’s success, Mr Harding and his team – Rob Howe, Zack Tardiani and Heni Borsos – have already begun planning next year’s events.
He said without these concerts, people would have no idea of the diversity and calibre of Cairns music artists.
“It’s so stylistically diverse, there is just so much talent up here,” Mr Harding said.
“This isn’t just a specific style of event. It’s not just a reggae event. It’s not just a rock event. We’re bringing in a bit of everything.”
Originally published as Starved of live music venues, musos created own festival
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