Weekender brings original live music back to Ocean Village

The fourth edition of Weekender returns this Friday, July 31, with a free night of original live music at Ocean Village, showcasing a mix of UK and Gibraltar bands from the Arena stage to O’Reilly’s.

The event, which has grown into a regular fixture on the local music calendar, is organised by music aficionado Wayne Meenagh and is sponsored by local businesses.

This year’s line-up features six acts, three from the UK, namely The Sway, Little Juke, Nothing Rhymes with Orange and three from Gibraltar, namely Cedar, Nikolai Celecia and Colm O’Sullivan.

“We’ve got six bands, three from the UK, four if you throw in Colm O’Sullivan, who’s Irish but we always count him as a Gib talent,” said Mr Meenagh.

All three UK bands will be playing outside Britain for the first time. One has already appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival this month and played one of the smaller stages at Glastonbury last year.

“The quality of the UK bands we’re bringing over is really, really good,” he said.

He selects UK bands for Weekender based on what he discovers at smaller independent festivals rather than major headline events, frequenting multi-venue city festivals in Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool.

“You don’t even know the bands half the time,” he said. “You just go in; if you like them, you stay and watch them. If you don’t like them, you walk out and go to another venue.”

This year’s visiting acts, The Sway from Liverpool, Nothing Rhymes With Orange from the Bristol/Bath area, Little Duke from the Midlands and Birmingham scene, has built a strong following in its home region, said Mr Meenagh.

Adding that for the UK bands, the Weekender offers valuable exposure and content for their social media, while for local acts it is a chance to measure themselves against touring bands.

“For the Gib bands, it’s an opportunity to basically test themselves against UK bands, give them a bit of exposure,” he said, noting that Cedar has already completed several UK tours and are “probably on a par” with the visiting groups in terms of experience.

Mr Meenagh stresses that a key principle of the Weekender is that it is dedicated to original music.

“There’s lots of other festivals and gigs going on in Gib, but it tends to be cover bands,” he said.

“The stipulation is it’s all original music.”

Adding: “We might allow them one cover just as a throwaway.”

The aim is to “raise the bar” for live music in Gibraltar and inspire younger musicians.

“Hopefully there’s lots of young bands out there, 16–18, they’re going away to uni, they come back and say actually that’s a good gig, I know some of those bands from the UK and I want to play like that.”

“If that’s something they aspire to, it means they go out of their comfort zone to write original music,” he added.

Friday’s event will start at 5pm, with live music from 6pm through to midnight. Each band will have around 45 to 50 minutes, with a tight turnaround between sets. For anyone wanting a prelude to the event or can’t make it, but still wants to see original live music, the sound checks for each act will take place from around 2.30pm on Friday afternoon.

The event area stretches from the stage at Arena by the Sunborn back towards O’Reilly’s and the casino and can accommodate around 900 to 1,000 people. Entry is free.

Summing up the event, Mr Meenagh said: “It’s just a really fun night out if people want to support live music, original live music, local and international bands.”

“You could be seeing the next big thing, but you just won’t know it until it happens. And it’s free.”

Previous editions of the Weekender have already hosted bands that have gone on to wider success, including Irish band The Clockworks from Galway, now supporting major artists and selling out 1,000-capacity venues.

“This year is probably the best quality from start to finish that we’ve ever had,” Mr Meenagh added. “I think it’s our best lineup.”