Regional Smokefreerockquest finals hit Hamilton

The Founders Theatre will be pumped this Saturday (12 June) as 14 shortlisted school bands compete to become the region’s Smokefreerockquest winner, securing them the opportunity to represent Hamilton at September’s National Final.

Hamilton is the new home of the Smokefreerockquest National Final. This year it will be held on September 11 at the Founders Theatre. From 2011 it will be held at the Claudelands Arena, soon to be New Zealand’s newest purpose-built 5000-seat music arena.

Smokefreerockquest director Glenn Common says this event gives school bands a realistic taste of live performance in a formula that will be replicated in 24 other regional centres around New Zealand over winter. And he says it’s not just the judges that will have their eyes on the bands.

“This year I’ve noticed that we are getting representation from almost all schools in many areas, and the teachers are coming along to support their students and often to assess their performance for NCEA,” Common said.

“There’s no doubt that entering this event enhances a band’s performance – we notice significant improvement with bands that have entered for two or more years and it’s often bands with several year’s of Smokefreerockquest experience that make it to the national final.”

Claudelands development manager Mark Christie says, “Just as Smokefreerockquest is a hothouse for young musicians, we want to create spaces in Hamilton which channel young talent from the local music scene. There’s plenty of it out there and right now we are really looking for ways we can get it on stage in the city more often. Already there are venues in Hamilton, like The Meteor, which could be used in a new way to make that happen. When it is open in 2011, Claudelands will give music performance an unbeatable boost in the region. That is why it is the new home of the Smokefreerockquest National Finals.”