Three festivals to fill Wairarapa with music

By Nathan Crombie, nathan.crombie@age.co.nz

Wairarapa Times-Age·

28 Dec, 2012 05:00 PM3 mins to read

A triple dip of Wairarapa music festivals will help kickstart the new year in the region.

The annual two-day La De Da festival at Daisybank Farm near Martinborough starts tomorrow, the first of three music festivals in January.

Next is the inaugural Wairarapa Country Music Festival at Clareville from January 4 to 6, followed by the Jazz N Blue In The Vines music festival at Loopline Vineyard near Masterton on January 13.

The Wairarapa Country Music Festival the next weekend features top Kiwi fiddle player Marian Burns and fellow headliners Kylie Austin, Alan Hooper, Clark Reid and Diane Peachy.

The weekend also features a range of other performers, who will open the festival on January 4 at 6pm, at 9.30am and 7pm on January 5 and at 9.30am on January 6 with entry fees of $10, $15 and $10 for each day respectively. A weekend pass costs $30.

The festival is hosted by Kidnappers Country Music and the Wairarapa A&P; Society.

Wairarapa blues artists will be joining with an international line-up of fellow performers for the Jazz N Blue In The Vines music festival at Loopline Vineyard near Masterton the following weekend.

The line-up for the festival includes Kiwi headliners Billy TK Jnr and the Groove Shakers, American performers The Mofo Party Blues Band, Bluesmaster Lil Goodsman from Britain, Kiwi jazz diva Mahia Blackmore, fellow New Zealand band The Cuzzie Bros, and Wairarapa artists from The Cross Creek Blues Club, which also is supporting the inaugural festival at the Loop Line Rd venue.

Billy TK Jnr and the Groove Shakers have been touring Australia and New Zealand since October on their Australasian Blues Benediction album support tour.

The band won critical acclaim after performances at the Sydney Blues & Roots Festival in October and four major shows in Melbourne.

The MoFo Party Band has played both small clubs and large festivals throughout Europe and North America. The band has backed late Chicago blues legend Luther Tucker, West Coast Harp Master

Johnny Dyre and Big Bill Morganfield and also has shared the stage with blues legends BB King, Bo Diddley, Robert Cray, Charlie Musselwhite, Los Lobos, Otis Rush, Huey Lewis, and Tommy Castro.

The Loopline Vineyard festival runs for five hours from 1pm on January 13 and tickets cost $35 apiece with entry free for children aged 12 and under.

Tickets are available at the venue or online at www.eventfinder.co.nz. For more information call 377 3353 or 021 138 7005.

Wairarapa music promoters Mark Rogers and Katie Grantham of Up With People also are confirming several live shows in the region for the early part of 2013.

Rogers said performers on the hit list include Anika Moa and Delaney Davidson and there also is a planned Leonard Cohen-themed evening of music and literature hosted by San Francisco-based writer Sylvie Simmons, who has just published I'm Your Man, a biography of the songwriting legend.

"We'll be announcing details of more acts very soon but in the meantime tickets for all of these events will go on sale in the early part of the new year," Rogers said.

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