Musos put unity back into community

FOR FEATHERSTON: Featherston's newest community event has been planned to restore unity and community spirit in the town following recent tragedy.

After a difficult few weeks for their hometown, two Featherston musicians are teaming up to put the "unity" back in community -- with an outdoor concert and "knees up".

Featherston Community Board member and banjo player Peter Jackson and Trinity Roots frontman Warren Maxwell are putting together the Featherston CommUNITY Concert & Picnic, to be held at Cherry Tree Park this month.

Mr Jackson said the event is to help promote goodwill in Featherston, after the community was rattled by the deaths of local teens Hoani Korewha and Pacer Willacy-Scott in a high-speed car crash.

The incident thrust the town under the national microscope, and differing opinions on the incident and its handling led to divisions in the community.

The gathering is intended to "bring the community together for a good old knees up and to demonstrate Featherston is not the basket case that has recently been portrayed in the media".

"We love the small town feel of Featherston and we've got a wonderful community here," Mr Jackson said.

"We wanted to help bring people together, and rebuild some of the community spirit which had been damaged recently. Anything we can do to accentuate the positive has got to be good."

Mr Jackson said the CommUNITY event will be held on the same day as Featherston's Neighbours Day Aotearoa celebrations, organised by Connecting Communities, also at Cherry Tree Park.

He and fellow musician Warren Maxwell are approaching bands to play -- with Mr Jackson's newest band likely joining the line-up -- and Featherston Youth Programme co-ordinator Reanne Tawharu is organising children's games and families activities.

Also on board are the Featherston Volunteer Fire Brigade and police, who will be on hand to talk about their line of work and introduce themselves to newcomers.

"It will be good to have them there in a social capacity," Mr Jackson said. "It's a great opportunity for the police especially to show a bit of what they do for a job, so people can see they're not the bad guys they think they are."

In addition, various community organisations will set up information stalls, including St John Ambulance and its youth cadets, Neighbourhood Support and Featherston Community Patrol to promote activities young people can be part of.

Mr Jackson said the CommUNITY event had attracted a lot of interest from locals, and many offers of help.

"I've got so many offers I may have to turn people down. If it it goes well, we'll hopefully make it an annual event on a bigger scale."

The Featherston CommUNITY Concert & Picnic will be held on Saturday, March 19, from 2pm to 7pm.