What is The Next Big Thing?
The Next Big Thing is a project designed to showcase the best of the local original music talent in Wairarapa and beyond.
Once upon a time we had a great venue here, King Street Live. When King Street was pumping then the music scene was also pumping. We had shows, we had local bands and we invited our friends over from other towns to play with us. We aspired to be better, we at least had aspirations.
When KSL closed its doors, the scene heaved a big sigh and then never quite got itself back up on its feet, then came Covid 19. What little there was left was battered and bruised and as a community we became disjointed.
So now we rise, we feel the beat of our wings in our hearts. Here we come, hopefully bigger and better and with more hope for the future of music in our province.
The Next Big Thing is just a series of concerts/gigs at the moment but it could be so much more.
One day maybe an amazing festival.
But… we need support. We need the support of musicians, and of our audiences. We need you to come out and make this a success so that we can prove there is a place for our homegrown original music in Wairarapa and in the hearts of our community.
Rise up Wairarapa, let’s hear your voices.
Sponsors of The Next Big Thing, Wairarapa
Want to buy Tickets?
24th June
Trade Hall 1, Solway Showgrounds
Confirmed so far in the line up:
Kuranui Jazz Band
Dragonfly (Wairarapa)
Captivated (Wairarapa)
fiffdimension (Wairarapa)
Jeff & the Angry Stick (of course…)
Shadowcaster (Palmerston North)
The Bravo Uniform Mikes (Wellington)
The Flash Harrys (Wairarapa/Wellington)
more pending… keep checking back
Tickets:
$15 in advance at undertheradar.co.nz
$20 cash on the door
15th July
Trade Hall 1, Solway Showgrounds
Confirmed in the line up so far…
The Travelling Lounge Room
Velvet Star
Jeff & the Angry Stick (Wairarapa)
Lynnal Lopa (Wairarapa)
The Troubled Times (Wairarapa)
Adoneye (Wellington)
Ali Whitton (Wellington)
CCs House (Wairarapa)
more pending… keep checking back
Tickets:
$15 in advance at undertheradar.co.nz
$20 cash on the door
19th August
Trade Hall 1, Solway Showgrounds
Confirmed in the line up so far…
Jeff & the Angry Stick (music release night)
The Clangers (Wellington / Wairarapa)The Dirty Spoons (Wellington)
Electric Moccasins (Auckland)
Leopard Print Aunt (Wellington)
Seki Bradaz (Wairarapa)
Mr Unit (Wellington)
more pending… keep checking back
Tickets:
$15 in advance at undertheradar.co.nz
$20 cash on the door
Bands / Musicians… Want to Join in?
We’re not promoters, we’re just a band on a mission.
We don’t have a massive budget as original music is a hard sell and this is a prototype untested format. However, we’ve tried hard to put on a decent quality gig for everyone. We don’t have the money to pay thousands of dollars, but we do want to provide you with some expenses for your trouble. We are working hard to keep the costs down so we can hand everyone a share of the door.
We want everyone to get something out of this and networking with other bands is an amazing tool to kick start putting on your own gigs. We have people with other connections coming to the events. Photographers, recording studio owners, sound engineers, graphic designers, website designers, they are in in the mix here, we’ve even got a music critic and blogger, and some musicians with international reputations. We’ve got college bands, newbies, oldies, all styles, all genres – for a lot of musicians this is their side hustle but they also have some amazing skills outside of their musical life and are keen to help people get started.
With that in mind, if you are still keen to play then please fill in the form below and we can stay in touch, if not for this series then any other that might happen in the future.
Thank you for supporting this initiative, if we can provide a proof of concept then maybe we can aspire to a venue and maybe our very own festival.