Young local musicians fine tune their industry skills

Wagga Wagga’s budding young musicians are being given a unique opportunity to hone their music skills and learn more about the industry alongside some of the city’s best in the business.

After months of research, talking to venues, music industry professionals and interviewing more than 35 young local musicians, Wagga City Council’s Civic Theatre team has designed a music mentoring program especially for Wagga.

Council’s Director Community Janice Summerhayes said the Plug and Play program is designed to build business, music and marketing skills in young musicians so they can create original music, start new bands, get paid and make a career in music.

“The first Plug and Play event was a recent workshop in social media marketing and getting a gig. It was a great success with some great new Facebook and Instagram music pages emerging already,” Ms Summerhayes said.

“This initiative is specifically designed for our young musicians to help them promote themselves, their bands and their music, which will also benefit the live music scene in Wagga.”

The next event in the program is Sunday 21 July when the first of four CAVE Concerts is staged in the Fitzmaurice Street precinct.

Plug and Play has partnered with Cave BBQ to provide a live gig experience to high school musicians. Most of the participants involved have never played in a professional venue before and a lot of these performers will debut their original songs at these gigs.

The Civic Theatre team is also working closely with younger (18-25) professional performers on their stagecraft, business skills and marketing. There will be workshops in sound production, DJing and song writing.

Plug and Play events coming up:

CAVE Concerts

Sunday 21 July: Ellie Phillips and Jaime Esler and Jack Hawthorne

Sunday 28 July: Freddie Fewson and Elliott Campbell-Casey

Sunday 4 August: Bella Ingram and Emily Jennings

Sunday 11 August: Connor Gregurke, Eden Papiah and Zoe Glanville

On-Stage Jam Session with Dale Allison and Groove Factorie

Saturday 3August – 11am-1pm

This will be an opportunity to meet other musicians, form a new band, find an accompanist, hear what others are doing, get advice from Dale, and have a good time jamming with other Plug and Play participants.

Stage Confidence Workshops

July and September

This will be a two-part workshop for beginners that covers stage presence, tips on how to manage nerves and organising a playlist, followed by a group workshop and gig.

River and Wren

A partnership with River and Wren Markets to provide busking opportunities to the Plug and Play performers at the markets for the rest of 2019.