Punkfest 2002

Punkfest 2002 nearly never happened. When the Punkfest committee first met in August it learned that the Wellington City Pipe Band hall at the southern end of Hanson St, that had been used in previous years, was not available. The reason given was that it was already booked for an event on Labour Weekend. (It wasn’t, they didn’t want us back.)

The organising committee consisted of the members of Tried for Treason (Tom, Tim, Matt, Scott, and Ed); Punkfest originators Ross and Lyn; Luke (Disasteradio), Geoff and Lucia, Nathan, John and Ken.

There was a desperate search for an alternative all-ages venue to host the usual Friday to Sunday shows including a matinee on Saturday. When nothing in the city was found, we decided to approach The Factory management to hold a two-night scaled-down fest with possibly a Saturday afternoon show at Aro Hall. That hall was unavailable, so we decided to drop the matinee show and hold a two-night event and call it Nevermind Punkfest (as in Never Mind the Bollocks, here’s Punkfest – or vice versa). With only Wellington bands playing, we assumed we wouldn’t have the usual large audience to help pay travel costs for out-of-town bands. A preliminary line-up of 17 bands from around the country had to be cut down to 11 local bands because of the venue issues.

The venue, formerly OMW recording studios, was on Hanson Street, Newtown, at the opposite end from the Pipe Band Hall. It was set up as a practice venue in 2002 by Adrian and Tim who co-managed it. The place was a massive concrete building, extending to Tasman Street on its western side, with lots of rooms that were never used and a loading bay at the back, accessed down a drive from Tasman St. The front access was up two or three flights of stairs, not ideal for a practice or gig venue. Especially with some flats in the upper floors.

The Factory ran for less than two years, because developers wanted to turn the place into apartments, and closed in April 2004. (The building is now demolished, possibly to avoid earthquake strengthening costs.) Among other Welly bands, Tried for Treason and Dead Vicious practised there and were able to persuade Adrian to let us use the L-shaped lobby area for Punkfest, plus other rooms for backstage and a chill-out area with armchairs and access to toilets. We squeezed in around a hundred people.

Adrian and Tim turned out to be a soft cop/hard cop act. Adrian was there when we set up on Friday night and there were no hassles from him. Tim was supervising on Saturday and demanded beforehand that the event was alcohol-free that night. He returned halfway through the show and gave us a row for ‘defying’ him.

After this less-than-ideal venue, and the numerous difficulties involved in holding a show there, we were ‘rewarded’ in 2003 with finding a great venue (the Wellington Car Club rooms in Berhampore) that we were able to lease for the next seven Punkfests. There is a God after all, who appears to like punk rock.

Ken Simpson