Auckland Blues Festival 2022

New Zealand’s bespoke blues experience

When: 12 November 2022

Where: South Head, Auckland, New Zealand.

www.bluesfestival.co.nz
 

A superstar line-up of blues artists will play at an event on 12 November at a location near Parakai in Auckland.

Auckland Blues Festival is a one-night showcase which will bring together some of the biggest stars in blues music from New Zealand and Australia, including Ash Grunwald, Midge Marsden, Fiona Boyes, Jeff Lang and more.

Festival promoter Paul Moss says of the concept,

“I have wanted to create a bespoke blues festival for Auckland for many years, designed with a quality experience in mind and with respect to the genre and its New Zealand fans.”

The festival will host two live stages of a stunning, pure blues line-up of artists at the stunning Leighton’s Farm at South Head Peninsula, complete with camping options, vendors and covers over the stages.

Moss says, “Being a long-time fan of the blues, I wanted to ensure we billed a range of artists to showcase the depth of the genre, with a tip of the hat to some scene legends such as NZ’s own Midge Marsden who will be bringing his full band, as well as Australians Ash Grunwald, Fiona Boyes, Jeff Lang and Nathan Cavaleri for this inaugural show. There will be something for everyone and it will be nothing but the blues.”

Artists: Ash Grunwald, Fiona Boyes & the Fortune Tellers, Jeff Lang and Nathan Cavaleri alongside local legends Midge Marsden with his full band, Albi & the Wolves, Cat Tunks Ft. Blackstratblues, Jimi Kara and the psychedelic Blusos, Kokomo, Laura Collins & the Back porch Blues Band, Original Sun, Paul Ubana Jones, The Caramellos, the Flaming Mudcats, The Solomon Cole band and Lil Lach. More TBC.

This festival will feature the highest standard of sound systems available in the country, by Tritone Audio, which have been used by Aum New Year’s Festival run at the same event location for the last seven years. Moss says,

“We take production seriously and are bringing the same effort to sound and lights as seen on our Aum New Year’s Festival each year.”

Auckland Blues Festival aims to reset the bar in blues music events.

Other details:

Located just 50 minutes drive from central Auckland

Free parking on-site just a short walk from the music stages

A delicious selection of food and beverage vendors

Buses will run from locations around Auckland to/from the event

A 400 acre breath-taking festival site which includes a camping area for attendees should they wish to stay. Camping is included in ticket prices, as are drinking water and showers.

Sustainability

We walk-the-walk when it comes to caring for the environment. Where others use sustainability as marketing pitch, Auckland Blues Festival and AUM festival live it, and we have done since day one. We aspire to be a zero-waste sustainable event and we care for the land as much as we care for our guests. Our guests are a key part of this effort too.

FEATURED LINEUP ARTISTS

ASH GRUNWALD

Ash Gunwald is one of Australia’s most successful ever blue artists with six top 50 albums and two APRA Awards. He’s been nominated for five ARIA Awards and was named Best International Act at the LA Music Critic Awards in 2014.

He worked alongside Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter Lachlan Bostock on his latest album Shout Into the Noise, released in January 2022.

The lead single, “I Want You To Know”, from Grunwald’s most recent album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViyuVS62OnY

FIONA BOYES & THE FORTUNE TELLERS

Fiona Boyes plays deep Blues, influenced by a myriad of traditional regional styles.

She has carved an international career as a blues guitarist, bandleader, vocalist and songwriter. Reviewers have described her as a ‘musical anomaly’ and ‘Bonnie Raitt’s evil twin’! A distinctive finger-picking and slide guitarist, Fiona’s soulful style has earned her unprecedented recognition overseas.

Fiona was nominated for the Koko Taylor Award (Best Traditional Female Artist) at the 2019 USA Blues Music Awards in Memphis, her 8th BMA nomination over various categories since 2007. She is the only Australian ever to be nominated for these awards, which are considered to be the Grammys of the Blues.

MIDGE MARSDEN
New Zealand’s legendary music icon Midge Marsden needs little introduction.

Midge’s career spans five decades, and during that time he has played thousands of concerts in New Zealand and introduced several generations of Kiwis to Rhythm & Blues.

At just sixteen, Midge joined the 1960s band ‘Bari and the Breakaways’. By the end of the 60s joined the Wellington cult band ‘The Country Flyers’; followed by several years in Australia with ‘The Phil Manning Band’. On return to New Zealand in the mid 80s he began a solo career forming ‘The Midge Marsden Connection’ and then ‘The Midge Marsden Band’. This followed with several albums including the Gold selling album ‘Burning Rain’ in 1990.

Midge has toured the USA many times and has even tutored at the Waikato Institute of Technology in “Bluesology.” In 2006, he was made a member of the New Zealand ‘Order of Merit’ for services to music.

Midge Marsden is the ultimate act when it comes to Rhythm & Blues in New Zealand. Midge still tours with the ‘ Midge Marsden Band’, accompanied by Chet O’Connell, Neil Hannan, Liam Ryan and Johnny Scott.

JEFF LANG
Australian guitarist-songwriter-vocalist-producer Jeff Lang makes music that is accomplished, intricate, gutsy, melodic and loaded with soul. Often taking unexpected turns, he has consistently inspired his audiences by creating a diverse catalog of over 25 albums, three of which have won coveted ARIA Awards.

Jeff’s style is not easily pegged, though it’s fair to say he largely trades in roots-oriented rock; wider reaching in collaborations with the likes of roving guitar anthropologist Bob Brozman, American blues-rocker Chris Whitley, India’s desert-dwellers Maru Tarang and world music virtuosos Bobby Singh and Mamadou Diabate.

Jeff has mischievously called his music ‘Disturbed Folk.’ One music writer referred to him as a quiet achiever but the overall impression one has from observing Jeff’s lengthy career is that of a driven man who keeps his head down, playing and recording music as if his very life depends on it.

NATHAN CAVALERI
Nathan Cavaleri was an early starter in the music industry. By age 12, he was the centre of a bidding war between the labels of Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna. And by 16 he’d toured with B.B. King as his guest, and played at the Kennedy Center in front of The Clintons with Etta James and Bonnie Raitt.

2019 saw Nathan Cavaleri return to the stage after a 5-year struggle with anxiety/depression. Since his return, he’s made huge waves in stamping his footprint back on the music scene & has taken audiences by storm.

Cavaleri’s latest shows have been widely loved for his new music and emotionally driven and authentic live performances. They reflect on how his love for music deepened during his childhood battle with leukaemia, through to a hilarious encounter with Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant after playing to sixty thousand people in Zurich. His show brings his experiences and songs into the present, giving audiences an endearing shot of nostalgia.

Please visit our website for further details on the festival and the full artist release, and to secure your tickets to this very special event.

www.bluesfestival.co.nz

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