Board after-party shifts to expand

A selection of New Zealand's best musical talent is set to rock the Queenstown Events Centre this August for the Burton New Zealand Snowboarding Open after-party.

The Burton Open Sessions event will get 3500 people partying from 8pm to 1am to the sounds of homegrown rock and dubstep acts Shihad, Kora, Optimus Gryme, and Tiki Taane, alongside Queenstown's own Sunshine Sound System.

Riders from all around the world will travel here for the New Zealand Snowboard open - the Australasian round of an elite level halfpipe and slope-style snowboarding global series which starts on August 9.

Following a week of "hectic on-snow competition" at the Cardrona Ski Resort, Open Sessions organisers say the attention will turn to partying, "and what better way than to show the world's best riders our best music".

One of New Zealand's most successful rock bands, Shihad, is headlining the one-off gig, joined by Whakatane band of brothers, Kora, who play "a unique fusion of rock, reggae, space funk and dubstep".

Local favourites, DJ Downtown Brown with MCs KPZ and Stauny of the "infamous" Sunshine Sound System will then take the stage, followed by one of New Zealand's leading dubstep artists, DJ/Producer Optimus Gryme.

Organisers say the two, alongside Kiwi dub and bass sensation Tiki Taane who played two Queenstown shows in March, will close the show "in a storm of beats and an avalanche of bass".

The after-party is being organised by Homegrown Events, the company behind the annual sellout Homegrown New Zealand music festival in Wellington and Coromandel Gold (CoroGold) New Year's Eve concerts.

With the events previously held in Wanaka, and attracting acts such as Shapeshifter, Open Sessions organiser Mark Wright said the after-party had been moved to Queenstown based on venue capacity.

"We are conscious of taking something away from Wanaka, but there wasn't a venue that was big enough to allow us to grow," Mr Wright said.

"With regards to the afterparty, that's focused on Queenstown but we don't want to leave Wanaka out so there will be buses coming from there."

He also said there were plans around making the after-party festivities "bigger and more diverse" in the future.

"We have reasonably good plans with where we want to take it in the next few years... but for now we want to do this part of it really well."

Organisers say the event will sell out. Tickets go on sale from Ticketek on June 8 for $69 plus booking fee.