Awards organisers pull out stops for record numbers

Otago Daily Times

30-05-2025

As a record number of contestants swarm Gore for the Gold Guitar Awards, organisers say they have systems, and added venues and vehicles, in place to handle the churn of more than 800 musical entries this year.
The auditioning process for the Gold Guitars began across five venues yesterday and convener Philip Geary said their systems for handling this year's 829 entries were reasonably good, but could be better.
Given the growth of the awards, Mr Geary said the awards committee was engaging a software writer to create a new program to help organise the contestants, judges' scores and the winners in each of the 31 categories.
"[Something] that should just spit everything out, and all we need to do is look at it and confirm it, and that's it," he said.
Having worked the awards for 30 years, this was not Mr Geary's first rodeo and he and the other organisers made sure the stage and setup were the same across the auditioning spaces to keep the competition regulated.
"We're just trying to create the same environment of what they would do at the finals anyway, so that everybody's on the same level playing field," he said.
Gore Country Music Club music committee convener Laurel Turnbull said due to the record number of entries they had engaged all four venues for the auditions as well as added an extra van to act as a courtesy coach between venues.
The 12 judges were distributed between the Gore RSA, Gore Town & Country Club, Gore Baptist Church and Calvin Community Church for auditions, but would come together at the club for the finals on Saturday and Sunday nights.
Invercargill-raised and Dunedin-based musician Holly Muirhead, 21, who said she had first entered the contest when she was 13, said the competition was massive this year.
"When I was back in [the] intermediate [section] there were a lot less contestants and now it's like every class is 50 people," she said.
"I don't know how the judges do it."
She said the competition had been growing gradually every year and it was nice to see so many new faces in the songwriter and senior (or classic) sections.
Mr Geary said the competition's growth, particularly in the younger, intermediate section, happened about 10 to 15 years ago with the rise in popularity of country rock, such as Taylor Swift.
"I think it was three years ago [the intermediate section] increased by 30%, which is great, which is big," he said.
Ms Muirhead said she agreed with the Taylor Swift effect and said it was the American star's crossover between country and pop which attracted new audiences.
She said another of her favourites, five-time Grammy Award nominee Kelsea Ballerini, succeeded in that crossover space.
The Dunedin singer/songwriter auditioned with her original song 60 Years about her grandparents' anniversary.