Save Dunedin Live Music

28/09/2026

Just a quick last minute reminder for everyone to check out the "Behind the Music" Symposium happening over the next 2 days down at The Korokoro O Te Tui (141 union east east).

It's going to be a great couple of days.

18/08/2026

Hey All, Survey is still live over at www.savedunedinlivemusic.com got tons of fantastic feedback already, and some really great ideas are coming in, add your voice to the chorus, only takes a few minutes (well some people took like 30 mins, but that was some intensely detailed feedback).

17/08/2026

Good to see this happening, with a powerhouse lineup of young Ōtepoti musicians and for a great cause.

Natasha Griffiths is dead right here, opportunities for our local bands to get up on big stages at outdoor festivals are few and far between in ōtepoti.

With two venues closing in the past six months and the economic realities of the world these days making touring more expensive than ever, with streaming platforms churning out AI slop and paying artists less and less for their music these young bands are fighting uphill battles everyday to get their music out into the world, but the scene they have created is an example of true DIY grit and determination and it has honestly been inspiring to watch.

Good on (CRAC) Michael Cracroft-Wilson at Southern lights for stepping up and throwing this little shindig, the amount of production that goes into an event like this is a lot of work, he has been a big supporter of music and events in this city since way back and it great to see that commitment to Ōtepoti is still as strong as ever 🤘.

The DCC is currently refreshing their music action plan and with the current fiscal environment arts (music) are normally the first thing on the chopping block we have a survey up at the moment collecting the music communities thoughts on what the DCC can do to better support live music in Dunedin, the plan will map out where the DCC to spend the $$ over the next three years, let us know what is important to you, and where we need the DCC to focus their support.

www.savedunedinlivemusic.com

The survey is on the landing page and it'll only take a few minutes and it gives us the information we need to fight for the music city we all want to live in.

Ōtepoti’s vibrant youth music community is stepping up to tackle a growing national concern: low youth voter enrolment and disengagement among young...

14/08/2026

Save Dunedin Live Music are contributing to a Music symposium at the school of performing arts at Otago Uni.

There is going to be a ton of great presentations, panel discussions and a couple night time activities including a gig down at the crown.

Come along, it's all completely free. 🤘

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HFfqxCTpQ/

Behind The MusicLive music symposium28th to 30th September 2026 Register now Home Programme Venues Speakers Contact Behind The Music is a two-day inter-disciplinary event, involving academics, activists and practitioners, which will explore live music in Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing from the rich m...

13/08/2026

Kia Ora Otepoti Music People.

The Otepoti Live Music Action Plan refresh is underway, this is where the council looks at the plan, then looks at where we are at and decides what needs to be added or ticked off as done, it’s basically outlining the commitments (and funding) the DCC will make to support live music over the next 3 years.

We were hoping to run some of our community huis but life is busy busy busy so we won’t get the chance before the feedback is done, however we still want to hear from the music community in Dunedin and advocate on your behalf to get the best out our city and support our music ecosystem.

So, we have designed a short survey to capture what’s in your head and your thoughts on the most important issues facing live music in our city.
It’ll only take a minute, the survey is also up on www.savedunedinlivemusic.com for you to share, spread it far and wide and ensure live music is protected and supported in our awesome little city.

We are on a timeline here so it would be great to get as much feedback as possible before the evening of Monday the 17th August.

The action plan can also be found here if the link on the survey doesn't work (it's been a bit buggy).

https://www.dunedin.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/1033733/otepoti-live-music-implementation-plan.pdf

View Survey

11/05/2026

Hey Otepoti, do you leave voting to the last minute like I do, consider this your last minute reminder.

We won't tell you who to vote for, but there are a couple candidates who have been big supporters of local music on the list, just remember that when you cast your ballot.

23/04/2026

Today in a council meeting there was a review of New Year’s Eve celebrations and recommendations made for 2026/27.

Save Dunedin Live Music were disappointed to see the term "inappropriate music" thrown around with regularity in reference to some of Ōtepoti’s best up and coming bands.

As a group that has worked with council over several years to up-lift live music in this city, these comments feel like a great big backwards step.

On a personal level, I was proud to see our council platforming the bleeding edge of the youth music scene at a major event: something home-grown, political and unapologetically Ōtepoti.

Truly diverse community events have a wide range of styles – something for everyone –because not every band will be to everyone’s tastes. The DCC succeeded on NYE with a genuinely diverse range of styles, that resulted in a genuinely diverse crowd. Deciding that the youth music scene is ‘inappropriate’ for major events means that our council has decided that major events should not be welcoming to the young people of Ōtepoti. It is exclusionary and deeply disappointing, particularly given the responses that young people aged 15-17 wrote to councillors about how much they enjoyed the bands that night (read out by Cr Walker in an earlier meeting).

We were disheartened by the idea that council could find other “more appropriate” events where these bands could play. These comments are disrespectful, disconnected and reflects a longstanding disregard for the genuinely incredible music produced in this city.

We were also disappointed at the repeated assertion that a covers band needs to added to the event so that people can “dance to the bangers that they know the words to”, when in fact that is what happened at the event in question.
The awesome “Ōtepoti All Stars” are a cover band made up of local musicians, they are some of the hardest working cover musicians in Ōtepoti and they finished the night on NYE, playing songs that people know.
So why is the council discussing changes that have already been implemented?

The Otepoti all stars are a local band as well, so that is council money going to support local musicians at a council event - the way it should be - not sent out of town as some huge artist fee for a “Big Act”.

The event was well curated and representative of Ōtepoti/Dunedin, and that is something we can be proud of. I have never seen so many young faces and people from the music scene at a council event as there was at the 2025/26 NYE.

I believe we are experiencing disproportionate feedback due to the utterly underwhelming countdown experience negatively impacting perceptions of the whole event.

It is also disappointing to hear comparisons to NYE events in Queenstown and Timaru as though that is something that we should emulate. Our NYE is about our city, why would we want it to be the same as other cities?
After all, we have better music than they do.

(to this point I would implore the councillors to listen to “Play something we all know” that local surf-punk band Katharticus perform in response to this inane request)

Photo: Credit to Fraser from Dunedinsound.com for his always awesome Photography.