Red Rain for a Big Day Inv

BY CHRIS CHILTON

Why go out when you can stay Inv and be entertained on your own doorstep?

Invercargill will get its own take on the Big Day Out at the end of the month when the Big Day Inv is held, with international rock band Red Rain headlining.

Billed as a family friendly event, the no-alcohol, smokefree rock concert/kids' carnival on February 27 is an ambitious project geared towards providing nine and a half hours of free entertainment.

Throughout the afternoon 11 diverse southern bands will play sets on a massive 12m by 6m sound stage in the Gala St reserve before globetrotting hard-rockers Red Rain kick in the with the main act.

While the bands entertain the adults, kids will be kept entertained in a supervised play area featuring a monster array of sideshows, entertainers, magic, face painting, storytelling and bouncy castles.

Incredibly, all this entertainment is being provided to the people of Southland free of charge.

The Big Day Inv is being made possible by the non-profit Jehoiada Family Trust, the brainchild of Invercargill businesswoman Maree Francis.

"If Homegrown can pull people from all over the country why can't the people of Invercargill have their own?" she said.

"We're trying to do something for the community and to lift up musical talent in Southland – give them something to play at with decent sound, a decent stage to perform on.

"We want to lift the bar with something Invercargill can be proud of."

Francis' son Dave is lead guitarist for Red Rain, and it wasn't until she had the band's signatures on a contract six months ago that she started the massive job of organising a full-on family show built around them.

"I still had to fly to Singapore and convince Michael (Turner, the band's lead singer and manager)," Maree Francis told The Southland Times.

"He made me wait two and a half months. At that point I went from zero to 200 miles an hour because we didn't have as much time as I would have liked. But we've pulled it together, basically from August onwards."

Red Rain are a rising force on the international rock scene and an anomaly in that they're self-managed and have built their fan base so far without the backing of a major record company.

They play sellout shows throughout Europe, the United States, Canada and Asia and their Invercargill stopoff for the Big Day Inv comes at the end of their eighth world tour. They recently released their second studio album, Life In Real Time.

Playing throughout the afternoon and into the evening will be Southland bands Vision, Bandit, Sevens, The House of Kramit, Outside of Doubt, Simon Galt and the Yardmen, Room To Move, The Kicks, Haze and Rhythmonyx and Black Boy Peaches from Dunedin.

Matt Davies from The Rock radio station and city music shop owner Trevor Daley will be the co-MCs.

Inside the controlled enclosure in the Gala St reserve will be a food village, toilets, security and first aid staff.

No classy touch has been overlooked. There'll even be a VIP tent for sponsors and musicians where they can chill out and get "zhooshed up" by hairstylist Vivian Macmanaway before they go on stage.

The Rock girls will be taking buckets around the crowd for gold coin donations to help defray the cost of putting on the event, and any surplus will be donated to Southland charities.

Most of the entertainment and services available at the Big Day Inv are being donated and Francis thanks the vast lineup of sponsors who have come to the party to make the huge show a reality.

She would welcome more sponsors to provide extra free activities for the children's area, "so that families can come down and have a fun day".

The show doesn't stop when Red Rain hit their final power chord either. Four ILT bars, the Kelvin, the Kiln, Waxys and the Ale House, will host R18 after-parties at which some of the bands that have performed at the Big Day Inv will be playing.

Tickets for these cost $5 and are available from the pub venues, The Rock radio station and Trevor Daley Music Works from tonight.

If the Big Day Inv flies – and with this amount of free entertainment, why wouldn't it? – Maree Francis hopes to make it an annual event.wThe Big Day Inv, one-day music festival, Saturday, February 27, Gala St reserve, Invercargill, noon-9.30pm. Live music, children's entertainment. Free entry.

- © Fairfax NZ News