40 — Centralian Advocate, Friday, September 20, 2013

ALICE LIVE

Rooting forreggae festCorey Sinclair

ORGANISERS of AliceSprings’ first outdoorreggae festival hope to makeit an annual event.

Reggae in the Desert isthe brainchild of JonathanDe Wet, who felt there was aneed for a reggae festival inAlice Springs.

‘‘We’ve done quite a fewreggae events alreadyaround town but this wouldthe biggest one with differ-ent bands,’’ he said.

‘‘Usually we just have oneband but this time we have afew. We have an eight-piecereggae band from New Zea-land called Skatter Roots,who will be performing.’’

He hopes by holding thefestival in Alice Springs, itcould lead to the town be-coming a part of the reggaecircuit.

‘‘Reggae is growing inAustralia and we are thecentre of Australia,’’ he said.

‘‘Reggae has started toexpand with the first com-ing of Lucky Dube and it hasstarted spreading more.

‘‘Artists from Jamaica andEngland are starting to tourall over Australia. They areseeing it as the next reggaecircuit.

‘‘To make Alice Springsthe next part of that circuitwould be great.’’

Mr De Wet would like tosee reggae take its rightfulplace among the othermusic genres in town.

‘‘It hasn’t yet grown aspopular as rock or country,but there is definitely aplace for reggae,’’ he said.

‘‘Reggae has a presencehere. You cannot judge allgenres of music but reggaehas more of a feel to it, it’slike the blues.’’

The festival will featureperformances from EasternReggae, Dr. Strangeways,Greatfull Dread, SkatterRoots, Mr BaBa and more.

‘‘So far we’ve got threebands booked and some sur-prise guests coming in aswell,’’ Mr De Wet said.

‘‘We’d love to make this anannual event, especially theday after Big Band Bashbecause there are a lot ofpeople in town.’’

Mr De Wet said the festi-val will be a great familyevent where you can beoutdoors and listen to livemusic.

‘‘There will be 12 hours ofmusic,’’ he said.

‘‘I put late on the flyerbecause it depends on AliceSprings. It will be a greatnight of music.’’

There will be a variety ofdifferent reggae genres ondisplay including dancehall,ragga and roots.

‘‘Reggae has a lot of sub-genres the same as rock andmetal,’’ he said.

‘‘It is all different styles ofreggae.’’

n Reggae in the Desert will beat Gapview Hotel on Sundayfrom 1pm until late.

is back for3 SHOWS ONLY

Friday 27th�s�Saturday 28th& Sunday 29th SeptemberChris Callaghan’s Farewell

Heavitree Gap TavernStarting at 8pm

Pig on Spit $15 pp Saturday Night

Global headbangIN an event to celebrateheavy metal music betweencultures, Metal Across AllBorders will be held at theThe Gap View Hotel todayfrom 7pm.

With a range of heavymetal bands from across thecountry, as well as Japan’sown Palm, this night is sureto please the most enthusi-astic of listeners.

With Triple J’s metal pre-senter Lochlan Watt (pic-tured) on board, the trip willbe documented and createdinto a film which will also betranslated to Japanese.

Metal Across Borders willalso play at Santa Teresa onSaturday evening, the onlytwo performances the eventwill be holding in the North-ern Territory.

Audiences will be treatedto a talented line-up ofbands from around Austra-lia including The BlackWreath, In the Burial and ASecret Death.

Tickets are $15 at the door.

Bash for broadcastThe Sandridge Band from Borroloola will be performing at the Bush Bands Bash tomorrow

Monika O©Hanlon

CONTEMPORARY indigenousmusic will take to the big stage at AliceSprings and the world stage tomorrowwhen the 10th annual Bush BansBash is webcast live.

The Bush Bands Bash is the biggestconcert celebrating the music of indi-genous bands from communitiesacross Central Australia.

MusicNT manager Mark Smith isthrilled that for the first time theconcert will be accessible to everyone,from those living in remote communi-ties, to the big cities in Australia andacross the globe, with the Bash livestreamed through the MusicNTwebsite.

The live stream of the Bush BandsBash celebrates the 10th year of theevent and the pivotal role Bush Bandsplays in the showcasing and develop-ment of contemporary indigenousmusic.

In addition, this year’s event hasgrown to include a special perform-ance from the Desert Divas, a group ofindigenous female singer songwritersfrom Central Australia who are ex-tending the development opportunit-ies the event provides for indigenousmusic.

The live stream will be provided byTILT Vision, a Sydney-based product-ion collective that was responsible forthe popular broadcast of the BarklyRegion’s Desert Harmony Festival.

‘‘MusicNT is proud to once again behosting the Bush Bands Bash, bring-ing a night of amazing music to AliceSprings,’’ Mr Smith said.

‘‘This is a great opportunity tocelebrate 10 years of the Bash and thisyear, open up this incredible concert tothe world. Beamed from the centre ofthe country to your computer theBush Bands Bash will be a night ofepic music showcasing the talent

emerging proud and strong from thisregion.’’

The line-up includes performancesby Eastern Reggae from SantaTeresa, Max and the Cruizers fromHermannsburg, Running Water Bandfrom Kintore, Wampana Band fromYuendumu and Lajamanu, WanarnBand from Wanarn, and the WMC AllStars from Tennant Creek.

There will also be a special guestperformances by Sandridge Bandfrom Borroloola and Nabarlek all theway from Manmoyi.

The event will take place at SnowKenna Park from 4pm.

The Bush Bands Bash is proudly adrug and alcohol free event. Entry is $5at the gate and children under 16 arefree.

For more information head towww.bushbandsbash.net.au

The Bush Bands Bash is an initiat-ive of MusicNT.