Neighbourhood Noise event director Paige Fraser, centre, with artists Will McClean and Waguan.
Neighbourhood Noise event director Paige Fraser, centre, with artists Will McClean and Waguan.
Kāpiti's newest music festival Neighbourhood Noise is the culmination of a long term dream for event director and producer Paige Fraser.
Making its debut next weekend, six weeks after its original pre-Covid-19 date, the festival which is being held at Southward Car Museum is set to be Kāpiti's biggest indoor music festival.
"It's always been a dream in the back of my mind to run the world's biggest music festival and starting out in Kāpiti is just the start.
"Kāpiti is an up and coming place and Southwards is an amazing, very underrated venue.
"Their establishment is one of a kind and has some of the best lighting and sound equipment in the country."
Neighbourhood Noise event director and producer Paige Fraser.
The festival has been created to cater to a wide and diverse audience with a mix of genres including hip hop, soul, funk and also includes an eclectic range of performances such as the appearance of Acrobatic Quartet, a group of circus performers who will appear during a live DJ set.
"This kind of thing doesn't get done in New Zealand … I want to create a different style of festival involving the arts, dance, culture and so on."
Paige's dreams are big, but are a long time coming.
"I want to build something new and exciting for Kāpiti.
"Something long lasting that the youth of Kāpiti look forward to one day being able to attend when they turn 18."
With management experience coming from working at Homegrown concerts, large festival style events, and drawing on her knowledge from running bars and working with promoters during her time in Auckland, Paige has pulled the festival together from pure passion and determination.
"I came back to Kāpiti, was working at Waterfront Bar and saw Kāpiti's potential for more music events that no one was tapping into.
"We have all the boxes ticked for something like this in Kāpiti, we have the venues, location and people.
"We've got famous icecream and cheeses which are not even made here anymore, so I wanted to give it something else.
"There are so many creative and artsy people who I think will appreciate this kind of thing."
Passionate about giving artists an opportunity, Paige is hoping the festival will help bridge the gap between Auckland artists and the rest of the country.
"Most of the other music festivals in New Zealand, the bigger ones like Bay Dreams, they keep to the same style of artists.
"I like finding new, up and coming artists, and giving them an opportunity, a platform.
"I also wanted to bridge the gap between Auckland artists and here.
"Auckland artists don't normally come down this way but we all love their music."
The line-up includes Eno x Dirty, Diggy Dupe, Riddim Cartel, H4LF CĀST, Ferby, Will McClean and the Zooks, Waguan, Rhys Rich and DJ HEIST as well as food trucks and drinks by the National Distillery Company.
The festival is starting small this year, starting indoors but there are plans to expand outside in future years.
"My long term goal is to move it out to the back of Southwards and have more of a family vibe."
But for now, Paige is content to have created a platform in Kāpiti for artists to perform on and an epic music event for people to attend.
