First Bike-Powered Music Stage In NZ?

Bike-Powered Mcglashan And 10 New Beers Top Unique Festival Bill

The third Marchfest, Nelson’s ‘hip harvest hop festival’, takes place this Saturday, April 17 at Founders Park under the “Big Hop”, a giant weatherproof marquee. Festivities kick off at midday and run through until 9.30pm.

First Bike-Powered Music Stage In NZ?

Marchfest organisers believe the event will be a New Zealand first with its bicycle-powered music stage (acts include Don McGlashan and The Eastern) where volunteers from the audience pedal to contribute to the power supply - and can win a bike or a beer tab for their efforts.

"It's a fun project," says Glenn Harvey of sponsors Solar Peak, talking about the bike-powered music stage. "But it also demonstrates how easy it is to augment or replace grid power. We may use it to power the 500 watt mixing desk or some other piece of musical equipment."

Solar Peak and Marchfest organisers Dead Good Beer Events have also committed to making the bike power set-up freely available to the Nelson community for future events.

ONLY NZ BEER FESTIVAL GEARED TO CREATION OF NEW BEERS

Marchfest is the only New Zealand beer festival based on the creation of new beers and ciders (10 Top of the South breweries this year) For the first time, Marchfest will be staging beer making, home brewing and cider pressing demonstrations.

The ten "festivAles" being specially brewed for this year's Marchfest are as follows:

Founders: God Knows Best..bitter. "Our take on a ESB", 5%.
Lighthouse: April Fuel, an amber ale, 5.5%.
Moa: Blanc Resurrection, a Belgian Wit (wheat beer), 5%.
Monkey Wizard: Golgotha Porter, a porter brewed with NZ botanicals, 5.5%.
Renaissance: Funkelryesen (rhymes with Dunkelweizen), spiced rye beer, 5%.
Sprig and Fern: De-Vine Inspiration, Pilsner, 5%.
The Golden Bear: Liquifaction, a hoppy ale, 6%.
The Mussel Inn: Missing Lynx, Marzenbier (lager), 5.2%.
Totara: Ninkasi Green, an ale which will use green hops at harvest time, 5%.
Townshend's: Roger Parks IPA, a well hopped traditional IPA, 6%.

Plus there are new ciders from McCashins and Old Mout.

MARCHFEST IN APRIL - WHY?

Despite its name, Marchfest has been moved to April 17 to coincide with the end of the hop season - so that hop growers and hop pickers can actually attend the event that celebrates the completion of their harvest.

"We decided to move the event to April to get away from the overcrowded summer festival calendar," says co-organiser Eelco A Boswijk. "One of our main sponsors is Nelson City Council and they want to support more shoulder season events that can attract out of town visitors as well as locals."

Tickets are available for $25 on the door or in advance from www.iTICKET.co.nz or local outlets.

PRESS RELEASE ENDS

To arrange an interview and/or photo opportunities with the organisers or any of festival participants, please contact Ali Boswijk on 027 482 1462 or email info@marchfest.com.

Download Marchfest-related hi-res pix from www.marchfest.com/page/12/Media.html

BACKGROUND INFO FOR JOURNALISTS

The Music

Don McGlashan - iconic Kiwi singer-songwriter
The Eastern - rousing big bad string band from Christchurch
The Shot Band - alt.country outfit from Wellington
Ras Judah and Daham, roots duo from Botswana/Indonesia and Nelson
The Immigrants - Nelson's top live alt.rock band
Carmen Salvador, female singer songwriter, on tour from Chile
La Vida String Quartet, classical excellence, locally grown.

Provisional Band Times (subject to change on the day)
1.00 - 2.00pm La Vida String Quartet
2.15 - 3.15pm Ras Judah and Daham
3.30 - 4.30pm The Shot Band
4.45 - 5.45pm Carmen Salvador
6.00 - 7.00pm The Immigrants
7.15 - 8.15pm Don McGlashan
8.30 - 9.30pm The Eastern

The Beers

As well as the 10 new beers and 2 new ciders (see above for details) there will be beer talks will be held in the Jaycee room, which holds around 30 people, between 1 and 5pm. Seating is first come, first served, attendance is free.

Beer talk schedule

1:00 Totara Brewing (speaker tbc)
1:30 Andy Deuchars, Brewer - Renaissance, Blenheim
2:00 Andrew Dixon, Owner - Mussel Inn, Onekaka
2:30 Dick Tout, Brewer - Lighthouse Brewery, Nelson
3:00 John Duncan, Brewer - Founders Organic Brewery, Nelson
3:30 Martin Townshend, Brewer - Townshend Brewery, Moutere

There will also be a home brewing demonstration taking place from midday until 4pm, run by home brewers Mike and Ed and two cider pressing demonstrations at 2pm and 5pm by Pomona Cider/Monkey Wizard Brewery accompanied by real life cider yokels and possibly (probably, knowing brewer Mat Elmhirst) music from The Wurzels.

The Bike Power

Four specially-converted bicycles assembled by Glenn Harvey of alternative energy specialists Solar Peak will be mounted on a rostrum near the Marchfest music stage. The theme for Marchfest 2010 is 'creation' - to celebrate the creative acts of making beer, wine, food as well as great music and carbon-free energy.

Members of the audience will be invited to help power the event - providing a unique form of audience participation - volunteers can win a $500 Avanti bike donated by Stewarts Cycles or a beer tab donated by local craft beer pub, The Free House.

The old bikes incorporate donated Fisher and Paykel smart drive washing machine components to generate around 800 watts at 12 volts which is then converted to 240 volts to power an amplifier or mixer - by way of an invertor and a bank of donated old truck batteries.

The Kids

Last year's Marchfest was praised for its family-friendliness and this year's event will cater even more for kids. The amazing NBS bouncy obstacle course will be back again, as will train rides, pony rides, two different playgrounds, the ancient game of Kubb, the Active Movement Trailer (a Sport Tasman resource for children under 5), Tomo the Clown, a DVD theatre and a dedicated ginger beer and raspberry juice bar.

Transport, tickets, wine, food and sustainability

A shuttle minibus provided by NBS will be ferrying festivalgoers from Nelson I-Site to Founders Park throughout the event.

Tickets are available for $25 on the door or in advance from Everyman Records, The Free House, all branches of NBS plus the Blenheim and Picton I-sites. Also online from www.iTICKET.co.nz or the iTICKET outlet at Nelson Escapes, 284 Trafalger St, Nelson (booking fee applies).

An exciting range of local wines available for non-beer drinkers is being provided by MarchFest Wine Sponsors Te Mania and Richmond Plains.

Food Stalls confirmed for Marchfest include Wurstwagen (German sausages), Twisted Chili (Thai), Starbellies (seafood), Devine Espresso Coffee, Pete's Natural Lemonade, Tasty Greek Dish, The Mexican, Mango (Asian fusion) and Liquid Zone (non-alcoholic drinks).

Marchfest is striving to be a Zero Waste Event and has appointed Zero Waste Coordinator Andy Williams to ensure that stallholders and festivalgoers do their utmost to adhere to the Marchfest Sustainability Plan.

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