By MARAIA VULA
The Fiji International Jazz and Blues Festival has received another sponsorship boost from Victoria Wines.
Festival director Billy Te Kahika confirmed the company will be one of the gold sponsors for the 2014 festival and venue sponsor as well.
Mr Te Kahika said: “The company (Victoria Wines) was one of the official sponsors for the 2012 festival and the support they give to art and Fiji in general for the tourism-based event is amazing.
“Victoria Wines went beyond the call of duty to support me in different ways and giving me much sponsorship in cash and making life easy for me.
“Approaching them to be a sponsor again for the 2014 festival as well as a venue for a couple of after-function shows was a big leap.”
Matrix Holdings (which owns Victoria Wines) managing director, Liam Hindle, said they were keen to work with Billy as it was the first time for the festival to be held in Suva.
He stressed they are working with them to make it a big success.
Shows at O’Reilly’s
Mr Hindle, who also owns the famous O’Reilly’s and Bad Dog Café said: “We are looking at after function shows at O’Reilly’s and Bad Dog Café.
“We will make it a few nights to remember because they will be all high-calibre musicians playing in Fiji on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.”
Mr Te Kahika said: “Fiji in general is short for proper performance venue so Liam and I had a meeting and confirmed O’Reilly’s to be a venue for the evening shows.
“Liam has some aspects of changing the stage of O’Reilly’s like building a proper performance stage not only for this event but future events also.”
Mr Te Kahika highlighted one of the key investments made by Mr Hindle would be the remodeling of O’Reilly’s and also helping them with some of the logistical costs.
New confirmed venues
There will be shows happening at two different venues in Suva with the after function shows at O’Reilly’s Bar and one show at Pacific Harbour
“There will be shows at Holiday Inn Suva and the Royal Suva Yacht Club on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5 pm to 11 pm,” he said.
“What will happen then is, we will close all the stages at 11 pm and move everything to O’Reilly’s and Bad Dog Café’ as it’s perfect there from 10.45 pm to the early hours of the morning.”
Mr Te Kahika said they are really close to confirming their programme for the Pacific Harbour event.
Tickets can be purchased from Holiday Inn Suva and from the event organisers from as low as $20 to $25 for the daily shows and a weekend pass ranges from $50 to $75.
Fiji International Jazz and Blues Festival director Billy Te Kahika (left) with the new Gold sponsor for the festival, Victoria Wines’ Liam Hindle (middle) and Jerry Vatuwaqa from Stage Tech at the Holiday Inn Suva yesterday, Photo: JUSTINE MANNAN