Musicians and advocates gathered to celebrate the Ōtepoti Live Music Action Plan at a launch event held at Te Whare o Rukutia yesterday.
The plan is designed to support sustainable creative practices and the development of Dunedin’s live music community, and is accompanied by a 36-point plan that lists priorities for funding into 2026.
It was initially devised by advocacy group Save Dunedin Live Music (SDLM) in response to inner-city noise complaints and was developed by the Dunedin City Council from June 2021 to June 2023, before councillors voted in September last year to adopt it.
SDLM spokesman David Bennett said there had not yet been any kind of celebration for what they considered to be a "huge thing".
"So we decided that we’re just going to put one on ourselves."
It was about a year since the council voted to adopt the plan and also coincided with discussions regarding the Music Advisory Panel — a dedicated group to advise the council on implementing actions in the plan.
"We see this as a really good point to kind of get the community back, excited about the plan, get everybody engaged and look forward positively."
The event featured presentations about the importance of music and the plan itself, accompanied by performances from local artists Tough Guy and Gabi Summerfield.
Mr Bennett said the group was happy with the plan and were looking forward to seeing it implemented.
Despite "considerable disruptions" and changes in local government, along with the council’s decision to go from a 10-year to nine-year long-term plan, the group had found working with the council to be "broadly good" and had been very engaged and open to the group’s input on the plan.
The impact on live music would be "huge" if everything on the plan was implemented, Mr Bennett said.
It had been designed as a "living document", which could be continually added to as points were completed, which would be part of the role of the advisory panel.
Councillors discussed the Music Advisory Panel during a public-excluded segment at a council meeting yesterday.
