Save Dunedin Live Music

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.

07/11/2025

It's fantastic to see the DCC celebrating the music of Otepoti, we think this is a great project with benefits for local musicians and recording studios.

Also what a great collectable this would be, hopefully we can turn this into an annual or bi-annual project in the future.

But for now we are just stoked to see the love for local music.

A compilation album of contemporary music produced by the Dunedin City Council is receiving mixed reviews before it is recorded. The pilot project...

29/10/2025

Sometimes it just takes a while for changes to work their way through council, but when they do it's time for a little pat on the back for everyone involved.

As of today the acoustic performance standards for new inner city residential buildings has been increased to better protect live music venues, and to protect the less musically inclined folk from BO And the Constrictors.

Big thanks to everyone who submitted in support of the plan changes, especially Hugh Harlow and Fairleigh Evelyn from SDLM.

Big thanks to Craig Monk , Francisca Griffin and Stephen Kilroy for coming to speak at the hearings.

Big thanks Aaron Hawkins for getting the ball rolling on this years ago.

Big ups to the planning team at the DCC for being collaborative and inclusive of community concerns.

There is a list of everyone who submitted in support on the document linked below, if you see them out and about give them a big pat on the back.

https://www.dunedin.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1262249/Stage-2-All-other-topics-Hearing-Panel-Decision-Report.pdf

Plan for Noise in action.

19/08/2025

It's been a notable couple of days for the future of live music in Otepoti/Dunedin.

The proposed Acoustic performance standards change for new builds under the 2GP was brought about by sustained community pressure and advice delivered to council while designing the Otepoti Live Music Action plan.

The last two days have seen that pressure continued with submissions to council from ourselves and several respected members of the Otepoti music community.

These actions were set in motion long ago and driven by the continued support all of you, for that we are thankful.
We feel confident that the good showing from Dunedin Musicians will produce good outcomes for venues and residents in our city.

The process also raised some questions from councilors on the role of the Music advisory panel as its relates to matters like planning and the role the new Music advisor position will play in implementing the plan.
These are crucial questions that we look forward to following up with council.

Keep up the good work everyone, big thanks to Hugh Harlow and Fairleigh for presenting on behalf of SDLM and to Francisca Griffin , Steven Stephen Kilroy and Craig Monk for their excellent submissions.