Free concert in Square not allowed

Press, 29 March 1984, Page 4

Free concert in Square not allowed

An Auckland rock band wanting to hold an hourlong free concert in Cathedral Square tomorrow afternoon has been refused permission by the Christchurch City Council. Cr Rex Lester, chairman of the council’s community services and health committee, yesterday refused a request by the Alternative Entertainment Bureau for a free concert by The Fog from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The bureau wanted to provide cheap entertainment for young people, especially the unemployed. A bureau spokesman said that businessmen would not have been disrupted, and noise levels would not have been a problem. The Fog are booked to

play at a central-city hotel this week-end. Cr Lester said that the Square was very busy on a Friday evening, and not the place for such entertainment. Christchurch Festival activities in such places as the Square had been part of a special event, and a rock band could not be compared with that, he said.'

“I think there is a need for the sort of thing these people are trying to do,” he said. “I think we should sit down collectively and arrive at a suitable site.” A concert at that time on a Friday would have attracted a lot of people to an already-busy area. ‘lt just isn't the right place, unfortunately,” said Cr Lester.

The young people needed a place where they could enjoy themselves, not unduly annoy others, and where the crowd was manageable. “The Square is just not big enough for this sort of thing,” he said. He had turned down an application by breakdancers for the same reason.

If a band were allowed to play on one Friday, that could open the way for other bands to do the same thing and make such concerts a regular future. The Alternative Entertainment Bureau’s spokesman said that unemployed people would receive a 50c discount at the band’s hotel performances.