The Gathering 97/98

Open-air dance festival to celebrate New Year.

Working dates: September 1997 - January 1998

Event dates: 31 December 1997 - 2 January 1998

Vital statistics: 48 hours, 700 crew, 8,000 Gatherers

This was the second Gathering at New Year, and the number of Gatherers doubled compared with those of the previous year.

I was invited to co-ordinate the DJs and live acts from the lower half of the North Island, and ended up taking on a larger role, kind of a "bits and pieces manager", picking up loose ends which I could see the four main organisers in Nelson would not have time to complete.

I also created The Gathering website, which I developed over the next 4 years into a 900-page source of information about Gatherings past and present, and which received over 7,500 hits per month (which was quite a lot in those days!).

My roles included:

Wellington regional organiser
Website designer
Producer of The Gathering 97/98 documentary
Stage manager of the Trance zone

My responsibilities included:

Wellington Regional Organiser - managing the call for submissions and mix tapes from the region, liaising with DJs and live acts and organising transport for them to and from The Gathering
Website design, creation, content provision, HTML, JavaScript, graphics, animations and architecture & navigation systems. The Gathering was my favourite website, my "baby", which I constantly worked on, developing and improving it for four years. I provided this service for free, and, considering how many hundreds of hours I spent on it, I estimate its worth to be around $100,000. Find out more about The Gathering website
General support for the four main organisers in Nelson
Stage manager of the Trance zone, a complete dance party in its own right. This consisted of 48 hours of zone management as a member of a team of two, including:
- checking DJs and live acts on and off-stage
- maintaining the functionality of sound and lighting systems (with tech support when needed)
- ensuring the safety, well-being and general good vibe of the Gatherers
Producer of The Gathering documentary. Find out more about The Gathering documentary

I think this was my favourite Gathering. It was all so fresh and new, I was in my favourite place - the Trance zone - for pretty much the whole party, which meant I could dance as well as work, and I felt a bit like the "camp mother" of the zone - making sure that Gatherers and performers were all happy, safe and looked after.

Following The Gathering 97/98, I was made a minor partner in The Gathering Company, with a 4% share, as a thank-you for all the work I had done. The plan was for me to assist and support Jose Cachemaille, one of the four directors. However, later that year, Jose and two other directors resigned, leaving Murray Kingi, the creator of the event, in sole control. He invited me to become one of the three full-time directors for The Gathering 98/99.

The Gathering 97/98

Awards

b.fm New Zealand Music Awards 1998

RE:MIX magazine New Zealand Music Awards 1998