SIT SoundNZ to Perform at Bluff Oyster Festival

• SIT SoundNZ to perform at Bluff Oyster & Food Festival.
• Students will showcase skills from 1970s to modern-day music.
• Festival to feature a variety of acts and local delicacies.

Many, many entertainers have graced the music stage at the Bluff Oyster & Food Festival over the years but one of the more unique acts will feature this year when SIT SoundNZ, a group of music students from the School of Contemporary Music at SIT will perform.

Programme Manager for the School Of Music at SIT, Antonio Mercuri says, “these students are in their final year and their performance at the Festival is to demonstrate their hard work over the last three years, as well as giving them a great industry relevant experience. It is also an opportunity to promote what we teach here at SIT Music, and showcase the skills students build while studying with us.

The students have come to study at the Invercargill Music school from all over New Zealand and they will perform an tailored array of songs from the 1970’s through to the modern day. .

“They are super excited and a little bit nervous as this will be the biggest crowd they have performed in front of,” says Mercuri.

While Mercuri is the driving force behind the SIT School of Music he will be a very busy man on the day. Mercuri will support one of the headline acts, Lachie Hayes, who will play a bunch of originals with a few buddies known as the ‘Tokanui Chainsaw Massacre’ which Mercuri says it is a “privilege” to be a part of.

He is also performing with Sea Beast, a Dunedin band which features a couple of low-key New Zealand celebrities – Andy P Parsons, the guitarist and lead singer, now returned to New Zealand after a stint in New York and Callum Hampton of The Chills and Left or Right fame.

Add in Jackie Bristow and In the Pocket, a collaborative band forged in the deep south, comprising of drummer Metua Marama, bass player Asher Skerrett, guitarist Darcy Kerr, and vocalist Maia Pereiha-Fletcher who specialise in a wide range of music, from classic old-school hits to modern bangers, plus the Bluff School Kapa Haka Group and it promises to be a great day of entertainment on the main stage at the Bluff Oyster & Food Festival.

The 2024 Bluff Oyster & Food Festival will take place in Bluff on Saturday 25 May at the Bluff Oyster & Food Festival site in Lee Street.

Gates open at 10.30am at the popular event with the iconic Bluff Oysters plus a smorgasbord of other seafood treats plus other food offerings and beverages available.

The music stage will feature a full day of musical entertainment while elsewhere on the site the popular Oyster Opening and Eating races take place.

Since it was announced only in March that the 2024 Festival would be proceeding, the Festival Committee have been working extremely hard to bring together another successful event as they prepare for their first Festival since 2021.