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A Wānaka based rock band are “stoked” to announce they will help welcome in the new year at this year’s Rhythm and Alps festival.
Powder Chutes, a group of four former Mount Aspiring College students, are set to perform one of their largest gigs yet at this year’s Rhythm and Alps festival.
Guitarist Clarke West said the majority of the band had been playing together since primary school.
“We’ve been playing together one way or another since about year 6 but officially became Powder Chutes around 2019.
“It just started as mates at school just enjoying music together,” he said.
The group first applied to perform at the Cardrona Valley festival around three months ago but were surprised when they got the nod.
“We didn’t think we were going to get it to begin with, but at the last minute we got the call up to perform and we are just stoked to be doing it.
“It was all of a sudden and it was just pretty crazy,” he said.
For Powder Chutes, large crowds are nothing new, having performed at concerts at Gibbston Valley and opened multiple shows for American act Highly Suspect’s New Zealand tour.
Mr West said the the band has always enjoyed playing large stages.
“We can have the most fun playing music through a massive sound system with the space to run around so the opportunity to do that in our home town is real special,” he said.
Powder Chutes are currently in the writing phase of their second album.
“Up until R&A we are slowing down a little bit to get the album done, but we have a gig at Water Bar in October.
“Some of the new stuff we have been working on is by far our best so far, and we feel like we’ve really taken a step in terms of writing and production.
“We’ve got some cool things coming up that we’re really excited for,” he said.
Powder Chutes has been named alongside artists such as Fat Freddy’s Drop, Benee, MPH and Shapeshifter — who were also announced in the first line up.
Around 10,000 festival goers are expected at this year’s Rhythm and Alps event.