There are two weeks left on the 2016 program, and Beat speaks to event coordinator Darren Whittingham about the upcoming festivities. “We run it every Friday [in February] and into some of March, for four years now,” he says. “It’s just going from strength to strength. We feature live bands, and we try to keep it local. We have DJs as well. This year we’ve got some live interactive projections as part of our programs. It’s a free event, so it’s well worth it.”
So far, the 2016 instalment has been a major attraction among arts lovers located in the City of Kingston precinct and surrounds. “Last week we had 350 people,” says Whittingham. “We want to do even better than that in the last two weeks, so come on down.”
If the pop up bar’s prevailing popularity isn’t enough to secure your attendance, Whittingham gives us the low down on the musical and artistic delights in store for Friday February 19. “We have the Dirty Laundry band with Soul Sister,” he says. “They’ll be rocking out through the ages. So they’ll be doing ‘80s, ‘90s and current covers. We’ve got DJ Sammy Swayn as well. Sammy’s DJd at Stereosonic, Future Music I believe as well.”
The final week is even bigger. “We’ve got Jimi Hocking a.k.a. Jimi the human playing. He’s going to bust out a mandolin set to start with, and then the rest of the Blues Machine are going to join him, so that’s going to be awesome. Then we’ve got Big Daddy Warbucks from the South Side Soul crew doing a DJ spot for us, and DJ Sammy Swayn will be finishing that night too.”
For the final night of the 2016 program, the activities will also extend beyond the Kingston Arts courtyard. “Concurrently with all that we’re opening up the whole venue and having a South Side Soul fixture upstairs in the Lounge Bar, and Big Daddy Warbucks will be moving upstairs for that.”
Live music and DJs are really just the beginning of the pop up bar attractions. “We’ll be running pop up shops as well,” Whittingham says. “There’ll be two great pop up shops around the corner in the courtyard too where our interactive projections are. The pop up shop on the 26th will feature Johnny Crates Idem, who’ll be selling soul, funk vinyl 45s. So it’s more than just music. We want to get all the community involved, and be family friendly. And it’s all free to get in.”
An especially great thing about the pop up series is that the vast majority of the participating musicians and artists are local to the City of Kingston area. “We’ve tried to do that as much as we can, we try hard to keep it local. Jimi’s a local, or used to be a local; he’s down in Mount Martha now. So pretty much all the acts are at least from the South side.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
