One of the most exciting new events this year, the Summer Fest, is already gearing up in preparation for its celebration of local sounds.

In case you missed it, Summer Fest will take place on February 5 at Blake Park and includes music from Stan Walker, Midnight Youth, The Deeds, Nine Mile Stone, Swamp Thing and more. And you gotta hope that by February this continuing torrent of inclement weather will be a thing of the past.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for young band MSix, who won a Battle of the Bands to earn a place playing on the Mount beach on New Year's Eve and promptly saw their big gig disappear under several inches of water as the celebrations were reluctantly cancelled.

They played another gig last Friday at the Mauao Performing Arts Centre (MauaoPAC), and took another shot at a big festival appearance.

Last Friday was the first heat of the ‘Packing Heat' Battle of the Bands, which is open to all intermediate, high school and polytech students in the Bay of Plenty and is taking place throughout January.

There are further heats this Saturday (January 14) and on 21 and 28. The top three bands chosen from all heats and will go through to play at Summer Fest.

And, while they get the chance to play alongside the impressive range of Summer Fest bands, the day will also act as the ‘Packing Heat' final with the top three places decided and announced at the festival. There's a good line-up of prizes too.

The winner will get a $500 music voucher from Bay City Music Works in Tauranga and 10 weeks of tuition at MauaoPAC while second place gets a $300 music voucher from Bay City Music Works and five weeks of tuition at MauaoPAC and third place gets a $200 music voucher from Bay City Music Works and three weeks of tuition at MauaoPAC. I like it.

There's also an extra prize up for grabs, not necessary related to the top three bands or the winning band, but rather a band that shows a lot of promise and has been well supported by their school. This is to encourage schools to help develop young musicians. The prize is a Saxon ‘Big Booty' guitar amp head and 12 inch speaker cabinet – it goes to the school's music department.

I was talking to Aaron Saxon, the organiser of the ‘Packing Heat' initiative and mentioned what a remarkable coincidence it was that the amp in question shared his name. Not so much of a coincidence as Aaron explained…

'Early 2011 I was approached by an amp company that I now fully endorse as my main amp of choice. I did a couple of video demos for this company simply because I liked the tone of the amp and they came back to me offering me my own amp range. I was blown away! We have worked together to create a tone that is clean and fat and can gain out and chime and it's called the Saxon ‘Big Booty'.”

That's pretty high cotton, whoever you are, having an amp named after you. And something of a first for Tauranga as far as I'm aware.

Aaron says they're still working on the ‘Lil booty', a five watt valve amp, and the ‘Sweet Azz', a 15 watt valve amp.

But back to the ‘Packing Heat' Battle of the Bands.

The heat this Saturday features three bands – Eyes of May, Kuriosity and Storm Eater – but there are still places left in the final two heats.
If you are in a band and are interested, or know someone you think might be, email Aaron through [email protected] for an entry form.

And if you want to hear how the town's up and coming bands are doing, just turn up at MauaoPAC (11 Totara St at the Mount) for any of the heats.

They take place at 5pm and it's free entry for the public.

I also talked to Aaron about the new injection of tutors and courses at MauaoPAC.

There are some very cool names being added to the roster this year but as I've run out of space we'll return to that another week.