NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Local Focus: Totara Street embraces crowdfunding campaign to bring live music back to the Mount

Gavin Ogden
By Gavin Ogden
Video Journalist, Tauranga, NZH Local Focus·NZ Herald·
20 May, 2020 09:25 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Mount Maunganui music venue faces uncertainty. Made with funding from NZ On Air.

With gatherings of 100 or more currently banned, the future of music venues up and down the country is looking bleak.

Among them is Tauranga's Totara Street, founded in 2015 and desperate to survive 2020. The venue is an important part of the region's music scene.

"Totara Street is part of the Mauao Performing Arts Centre," director Ross Shilling said.

"The Mauao Performing Arts Centre in whole is a community centre that basically does music lessons, puts on events, has the community use it, and live music is one of the big things that happens at Totara Street."

And it's that live music that actually pays the bills.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We don't make a whole lot of money out of anything else. It subsidises some of the community stuff we do, it subsidises the music lessons to a certain degree. It's a commercial building, we pay commercial rent and it's through the roof like everybody else's in the Mount," Shilling said.

During lockdown, the staff have done what they could to keep the business afloat.

"We've had to negotiate with the landlord and try and put contracts on hold which we've done the best we can. The bottom line is that money is still going out - you can't cancel some of these contracts with some people. You can't not pay your insurance because if the building burns down you're totally shot.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We've managed to negotiate a reduction but if it goes on for three months we're $25-30k in the hole. That's all there is to it. That money's still going out."

Shilling says as long as social distancing remains in place, many venues will be forced to remain closed.

"Totara Street is closed until we can get rid of the two-meter distancing – it just won't work - at all. Even at 100 seated, by the time you staff it and hire the tables and do all the things that you need to do, because we're not really set up as a restaurant, it doesn't make any money for us."

With the music scene unlikely to return to normal anytime soon, a crowdfunded 'Save Our Venues' campaign has come to the rescue.

Discover more

New Zealand

Local Focus: Rotorua hopes to keep locals 'in their element'

13 May 09:41 PM
New Zealand

Local Focus: Rotorua churches campaign against level 2 rules

17 May 02:48 AM
Kahu

Local Focus: Te Puia arts and crafts staff delighted with Govt investment

19 May 05:02 AM
New Zealand

Local Focus: Safety campaign targets duckshooting

26 May 02:44 AM

"We got approached by the Save Our Venues crew and at the time we were going 'how do we raise the money to keep this thing afloat?'. We've got no income, no idea when it's going to start again. It's pretty hard to come up with $25k which is essentially just going to pay the overheads for three months."

But level 2 has allowed the venue to reopen some of its community offerings such as music lessons.

"It's quite amazing just coming here," 10-year-old student Videl Harrison said. "It makes me really happy, I really enjoy it. It's so much fun to come and do something I love."

The tutors are also glad to be teaching face-to-face again.

"A lot of musicians who teach have had issues teaching via Skype or Zoom simply because the internet crashes, stalls, a lot of times there's bad audio," tutor Melissa Cox said.

"You can't actually play at the same time with your students so whether you are offering accompaniment on a guitar or piano for instance and they're singing over that, you can't do that over Zoom or Skype."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

And experiences like this are important for the future of your local music scene.

"Nobody really makes a huge amount of money out of music and art," Shilling said.

"Nobody makes a whole lot of money out of venues either to be honest, but they do provide a service and they do pay wages."

"But we do need to keep places like this alive because if you haven't got the kids coming through to learn to play guitar or drums, and getting up on the stage and playing with their mates and all the rest of it, it's just not going to evolve."

Made with funding from

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

'Game-changer': $56.4m irrigation funding unveiled

03 Jul 10:31 PM
Crime

'Ride a bike properly': Driver who left injured cyclist on the road claims he was the victim

03 Jul 10:27 PM
New Zealand

Ram raid targets Rotorua store overnight

03 Jul 10:21 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

'Ride a bike properly': Driver who left injured cyclist on the road claims he was the victim

'Ride a bike properly': Driver who left injured cyclist on the road claims he was the victim

03 Jul 10:27 PM

Callum Anderson drove off without checking on cyclist who was bleeding and concussed.

Ram raid targets Rotorua store overnight

Ram raid targets Rotorua store overnight

03 Jul 10:21 PM
Seymour criticises Waititi for 'insane views' about African leader

Seymour criticises Waititi for 'insane views' about African leader

03 Jul 10:17 PM
Flood-ravaged Nelson, Marlborough in the firing line again, Auckland to see storms
live

Flood-ravaged Nelson, Marlborough in the firing line again, Auckland to see storms

03 Jul 10:16 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP