The Clutha District War Memorial & Community Centre Te Pou O Mata Au (TPŌMA) was christened last Tuesday, courtesy of its first big-ticket performing artist, Kaylee Bell.
Launching her latest album with an Australasian tour, the rising Kiwi country-pop star was pleased to perform in the South.
"I was born and raised in a small town and grew up travelling to talent contests in other small towns," the Waimate native who now lives in Nashville said.
"The towns are getting bigger as my music reaches more people, and spending a lot of time in big cities now is a great part of that.
"Touring is the perfect opportunity to get right back to where this journey all began for me. Small towns have the spirit I want to feel in my music ... When TPŌMA asked out of the blue if we’d like to add Balclutha, it fitted in nicely with our southern dates and being the first big, live performance in a brand-new venue in my kind of town seemed lucky in a good old-fashioned, country kind of way."
Balclutha was the ninth date on the tour, and Bell and her band really hit their straps.
TPŌMA facility director Mary Woodrow said the idea of inviting Bell to Clutha came up last January.
"I was aware of her from social media and saw she had a tour planned that included small towns, so we researched who to contact and reached out," Ms Woodrow said.
"We pitched TPŌMA as a state-of-the-art facility, and the idea of being the first real concert here was a big selling point ... It went off without any problems.
"They said they were really happy and would love to come back. It served as a great opportunity to showcase our facility to attract future performers."
"We know our town and our goal is to provide a wide variety of events to cater for our whole district, Ms Woodrow said.
"We are in talks with some performers of different genres I’m not able to name at this stage [but] we are looking forward to our upcoming Pink Ribbon event."
