Fest Napuan Music Association launches new logo, theme and dates

Fest’Napuan 2010 : “Women In Music”
20-24 October 2010, Port Vila, Vanuatu
The Fest’Napuan Association is pleased to announce the logo, theme and dates for the Fest’Napuan 2010. Fest’Napuan 2010 will have the special theme of “Women in music”. Reflecting this theme, this year’s logo features a woman playing a bass guitar. The dates for Fest’Napuan 2010 are 20th to 24th October. As usual, the first day (the 20th) is the Fest’Nalenga, which features string band music, the next three days (21st-23rd) are Fest’Napuan proper, which showcases local and regional popular contemporary music, and the last day (24th) is Zion Fest which celebrates gospel and religious music. With a fantastic line-up of both local and International artists performing, Fest’Napuan is one of the premier events in the Pacific and one of the only independent, free events of its kind. Many artists from around the Pacific region are joined by top rating Australian and New Zealand bands – featuring a line-up of about 30. With this regional exposure, new opportunities to partner with media and sponsors have been developed also bringing the event into the homes of many thousands of listeners around the world, both through live radio broadcasts and live internet streaming from the event itself.

The Fest’Napuan Association is proud to be partnering again this year with Digicel, the regional telecommunications company, as the event’s main official sponsor.

The Fest’Napuan is also proud to be hosting again this year the winner of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Pacific Break” competition, for the best unsigned artist in the Pacific region.

Gender Bias in the Music Industry
The broader music industry in Vanuatu suffers from an extreme gender bias. There are very few women in any of the bands over the entire five days of the event. There are no female music producers, and very few volunteers involved in the organisation and production of the event. The Fest’Napuan Association (the charitable association which is responsible for the event) has several female members who are the highest profile women in the music industry. Apart from a few women who manage their own music careers, and women who sit on management committees for bands, there are no female music managers and certainly no full-time professional female music managers. It is fair to say that the music industry in Vanuatu is dominated by men.

Fest’Napuan 2010 – Women in Music
This year Fest’Napuan has initiated the Women in Music Project. For only the second time in it’s 15 year history, the event will have an official “theme”. In acknowledging the gender imbalance in the industry, the Fest’Napuan Association has decided to theme the event as Women in Music to encourage greater participation by young women and to provide a safe and attractive atmosphere to facilitate this.

A group of women have formed a Sub-Committee to the larger Fest’Napuan Organising Committee. This Sub-Committee is called the “Women In Music” (WIM) Committee. The Committee will be responsible for providing the guidance and direction for Fest’Napuan volunteers to ensure the effective implementation of the project.

Broadly the project aims to encourage greater participation by young women in the music industry and to provide a safe and attractive atmosphere to facilitate this.

More specifically, WIM will:
a)    Provide the framework for an Event’s Management Intern student from Southern Cross University in Australia to come and coordinate the project activities below;
b)    Engage a Local Counterpart to work with the Intern student;
c)    Assist Fest’Napuan to organize and set up a series for workshops and master-classes, leading up to Fest’Napuan and during Fest’Napuan week. Themes will focus on issues affecting women in society, in general, and music. Music workshops will be created for young ni-Vanuatu Women to engage and interact with the Australian Women as role models and mentors. These will happen at Grass roots and industry level;
d)    Launch the Pacific Women’s Music Network Alliance which will eventually connect to Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and other Pacific Islands;
e)    Host a Social Forum and Academic Symposium with a focus on gender issues in the music industry;
f)    Seek funding from various sources for the activities listed above.

As part of this project, WIM will also be:
•    bringing in international women artists to perform from around the Pacific;
•    require all local participating artists to have at least two women in the band;
•    bringing in two women’s kastom groups from Aneityum to perform;
•    forming an all-woman supergroup of prominent local women artists to perform.

As the Vanuatu Cultural Centre’s annual women cultural fieldworkers’ workshop will be coinciding with the Fest’Napuan, women fieldworkers will be involved in additional activities around the event.

Confirmed overseas artists
1.    Iaai Tradi (Ouvea, Nouvelle-Caledonie)
2.    SINGAOT SISTA (Australia & NZ) featuring Emma Donovan, Merenia, Georgia Corowa, Ajak Kwai and Ngaiire.
3.    Paula Fuga (Hawaii)
4.    Elena Baravilala (Fiji)
5.    III Kings (Solomon Islands)
6.    Tabura (Australia/West Papua)
7.    La Chorale de Tenane Zion Fest (Mare, Nouvelle-Caledonie)

Prominent local women artists to perform include Vanessa Quai.  For more information, contact Ralph Regenvanu email Cette adresse email est protégée contre les robots des spammeurs, vous devez activer Javascript pour la voir. Phone +678 7745001.