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Otago Daily Times
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Show aims to raise funds for musical playground
For its 31st year, Wānaka's Stars in Your Eyes show is fundraising to help build the town's first musical playground. The musical show, organised by Wānaka Musicians Incorporated, began three decades ago and took inspiration from the British television series, Stars in Their Eyes. Wānaka's version of the show is not a contest but has consisted of locals dressing up to imitate famous people and later reveal their real identity to the audience. Audition registrations recently opened in preparation for the musical show to be held towards the end of September. The show has been a community favourite and has helped fund youth music programmes across the region, such as the Jamie Robertson scholarship at Mount Aspiring College. This year organisers have decided to aim for something different by planning to create a designated outdoor space into town for people of all ages to enjoy musical instruments. Chairwoman Janet Dolan said they had always given money to local music education but this year they wanted to do something the whole community could enjoy. "We're talking about a full musical playground that adults, children, families, anybody can play," she said. "There'll be percussion instruments, there'll be bells, there'll be keyboard, and it's all outside." The group already had $30,000 put aside for the playground and was working with the council to get an estimate of costs and find the right location. Currently the show is gathering interest from the community and will be holding its auditions on the weekend of June 14. Ms Dolan said as the town's population grew, a more diverse range of people had been auditioning, something she felt gave the show strength. "We're aware that the audience represents the whole of Wānaka so we don't just want the pop music sort of thing, we want something that appeals to the whole audience," she said. The show has been open to a range of abilities and welcomed experienced and first-time performers. The show's team has also experienced a change with local musician and Festival of Colour performer Anna Shaw taking over as the director. The opening night for the musical show is set to be September 24 and will run until September 27 at the Lake Wānaka Centre.
Otago Daily Times
11-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Ideas for asset fund sought
The Wānaka Upper Clutha Community Board is calling for bold ideas from the community on how to spend over $4 million in asset funds. The board had its monthly meeting on Thursday and began discussing what the community plans to do with its asset funds. Ideas and issues around event management, traffic control, transport and social infrastructure were brought forward by both board members and local organisations. The asset sales reserve is currently about $4 million but is expected to grow substantially once the board sells land in Ironside Dr. Improving event management was a key topic, especially following the success of Wheels at Wānaka. The event held over Easter weekend brought record numbers of visitors to Wanaka as it sold over 60,000 tickets, causing severe traffic congestion. Board member Linda Joll voiced her concern that traffic management was unable to accommodate the growth of events in the region. "I felt like there was no traffic management plan or a very inadequate one," she said. Oliver Harcus, spokesman for pride group Out and About, spoke during the public forum and further expressed the need to improve event capacity in Wānaka. Mr Harcus focused on the increasingly limited capacity of the Lake Wānaka Centre, saying the building was a better fit for meetings rather than events. "Is this an attractive place to hold an event?" he said. He used the Festival of Colour as an example, saying it would have been hard for the festival to make money as its ticket sales were limited by the building's capacity of about 500 people. Mr Harcus also argued the building did not reflect the diversity of the town nor was it adequately accessible for someone with a disability. Queenstown Lakes District Council arts and events relationship manager Jan Maxwell said the region held more events than any other district of the same size. "We're not matching that need ... I do know it has its limitations," she said. Ms Maxwell, alongside a team from the council, presented a draft of the event policy review which promised to work on streamlining event services. This would include a single point of entry for anyone wishing to book a space for an event. Chairman Simon Telfer said the board was encouraging bold and large ideas that would be valuable to the community. He said this could include a new performance arts centre, potentially a sports fields and an artificial turf. Aside from event management social infrastructure, the board also heard from Electrify Wānaka, a local group advocating for the town to be powered by electricity rather than gas or petrol. The final recommendation on what to spend the asset fund on will be shared with the council in November while discussing the region's long-term plan.
