Youth Council ready to host Little Day Out

June 6th, 2011
[by Sophie Harrison]

After months of planning and work, one of Motueka's big youth events for the year is just about ready and rearing to go on Saturday June 25th.

With the youth of the Tasman area in mind, the Motueka Youth Council started the year of 2011 with fresh ideas for possible upcoming events they wished to hold.

After attending a hui for council members and a weekend of brainstorming, it was clear a take on Auckland's 'The Big Day Out', dubbed 'The Little Day Out', would be a fantastic event that would appeal to teenagers of Motueka. Not only would entertainment, rides, food and music be on offer on the night, but it would be an alcohol- and smoke-free occasion.

Originally planned for the national youth week celebrations, all eight councillors along with coordinator Kirsty were assigned areas of focus to ensure we could put our interests/fortes into practice. Holding weekly meetings to update one another, we soon finalised the Motueka Recreation Centre as our venue and developed promotional material with help from DryCrust Communications, which serves Tasman District Council.

Although we encountered some hurdles, including Nelson's Smokefree Rockquest clashing with our proposed date and Kirsty sadly leaving us, we are now set to hold this event on Saturday 25th June. We have since welcomed Libby as our new coordinator and have gained sponsorship from local businesses, confirmed well known bands to play and have been keenly advertising 'The Little Day Out' within our region.

Being teenagers ourselves, the youth council recognised the lack of events aimed at our age group held in our area and hopefully will hold a successful event which may be able to be held again and expanded further (although, as we have found out, there is much more to planning an event than we first anticipated!)

Any profits that are made from the night, which will run from 4pm - 8pm, will be invested into future youth council plans and fed back into the community.

As the weekend of the 25th looms we are in the final stages of planning and can announce some of our performers for the evening including All that I Despise, Brooklyn School and The Impressions. With only a $5 entry fee, myself, Harry, Jacob, Michael, Mikayla, Joni, Tegan and Amanda would be thrilled to see all the youth of Motueka gather for this event and we encourage everyone from the community to come and be a part of this night.

For a group of 15-18 year olds we have laughed and fought our way through challenges and as a fellow councillor once said "... we hope we can stand at the back of the Rec stadium with smiles on our faces and pride inside. Let's make this happen eh?"

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