Parac

hute
Music
Festiv
al:
Endin
g on a
high
note

This one

By
Eleazar
Corona
do

Lvl
After 24 years of running,
on
the 2 Music
th
26 of March this year, Parachute Musics Board of Trustees have made the decision
that
Internal
(2.9A)
this year was the last year that Parachute would be held, as they have concluded that it
Investigate
is no longer financially viable and would risk having to give up Parachute Musics
other
music events and activities. The following day, they made a statement on their an
Facebook
Aspect of
page and bid farewell on their official website. With the steady decline of numbers
New Zealand
attending, and a loss of a quarter of a million dollars, Mark De Jong, owner of Parachute
Music, says that this has been building up for about the last three to four years. It is Music
of
concern to many committed and loyal supporters in NZ and overseas, as it is one of the
largest musical festivals in the Southern Hemisphere, having been a big part of the NZ
The Kiwi Music
music scene.
Mag

Mark De Jong says that the Global Financial Crisis as well as the Christchurch earthquakes
has affected families financial situations. He called the need for an initiative Pay what
you can afford in order to keep the festival running under these circumstances. The idea
is that families may pay what they can afford in $50 increments down to a virtually free
option of $1.
Furthermore in 2013, ticket prices dropped by 25 per cent, the organisation decided for
the first time ever to limit ticket sales to the festival in order to use less of the event
centre and reduce costs. This is despite the closing of one of Parachutes big competitor
as a summer music festival Big Day Out, in 2012. Only 17,500 tickets were available. And
even though they sold out, this very likely stopped many more people from coming to the
festival, as they forced punters who normally attend Parachute to miss out, as around
20,000 attended last year in 2012 and over the years the festival had been having
consistently over 20,000 turn out. This combined with the continuation of the Pay what
you can afford may be the reason into the decrease in numbers in 2014, and Parachute
Musics thinking that the festival has come to its end in its natural business phases.
Introducing this initiative may mean that many families that would otherwise never have
or would have never been able to go to Parachute may go, resulting in increasing the
festivals market, incurring financial benefits in the future of the festival, and also to their
other activities and events they run. On the other hand, virtually any family can get a
hold of one of these free tickets as there are no formal checks made on looking into the
families financial situation. Based on Parachutes promise to subsidise 1 family for about
every $200 donated, with the total amount raised online around $25,300, this should
mean that at least 130 families benefited from this and got a helping hand to attend the
festival.
Although this initiative has its benefits, and may have helped out in 2012, continuing this
initiative is counter intuitive with the new limited number of tickets available. This means
either or both of two things. First, families who could not pay received tickets instead of
those who were able to pay. Second, some families who were easily taking advantage of
the initiative for a free ride received tickets instead of those who were willing to pay.
Either way both would have likely resulted in many people who were the festivals real
market in feeling discouraged that others who do not pay was able to get tickets instead
of them or felt it was unfair that others who pretended not being able to pay received
tickets instead of them, both leading to not attending in 2014. In 2014, numbers dropped
to about 16,000 and this may have made the board of trustees think that some of their
loyal supporters have not attended and/or despite getting allowing tickets for those who
cannot afford it, the decrease in numbers show that this has come to its natural
conclusion, when in fact it was the poor decision to combine decreasing the size of the
festival by creating this ticket limit and introducing this initiative that was likely the big
reason why numbers had dropped. On an economic perspective this may be one of the
reasons that the festival has to end.
Parachute music over the recent years has strayed away from its roots. Even though the
festivals music has not been solely Christian, it was for a long time mainstream music,
pop, hip-hop or rock music with Christian influences and messages, which came from
Christian musicians. Over the last few years there have been purposeful choices to stray
from Christian music as Christians nowadays more or less listen to the same music as
other people. Trying only to have a line-up of musicians that happened to be Christian
has changed the aesthetics, turning the festival into more like the rest of the music out
there. The Christian aspect of Parachute as well as its no drugs and alcohol rule is

something that has made the festival offer a different and special music experience for
people. Christian bands like Casting Crowns and Third Day did not headline this year,
instead chart-topping acts like Stan Walker and Dave Dobbyn.
Although this decision may have broad appeal, Mark De Jong says that one of the major
factors in the closing of Parachute is the saturated market. While straying from solely
Christian music may appeal to a larger market, Parachute then becomes mainstream in a
market that already has an excess of produce. In other words, there is already so much
excess of mainstream music available to music consumers, but there is a demand to
meet for Christian contemporary music. Parachute music first saw this need to take
Christian music to our pop culture, and this has what defined this festival from other
music out there. There was concern in the social media on band Elemeno P involvement
in the 2011 festival, which was seen by some as un-Christian, their music being secular.
Their lead singer Dave Gibson says, You could loosely call me Christian. There have
been many Christian supporters that say that they voted with their feet this year by
not attending Parachute as they no longer believe it is Christian festival. Also,
Parachutes most successful turnout of 27,000 had around half of the headline acts that
play Christian music, while this year there was only around two- fifths of the acts.
Parachute is not the only festival that has been struggling to run in these financial times.
Big Day out successfully came back this year after having to close in 2012 admitting
losing numbers due to financial struggles. In the earlier years of Parachute, there was a
small number of summer festivals, but today this has exploded into around 20 festivals,
giving people a large array of choices, and so it is even more important now that
Parachute stays true to its roots in order to stand out and offer something that is unique
to itself and different from the other festivals people may go to. Recently festivals have
also been struggling against the increasing number of international artists that regularly
tour and hold concerts in NZ.
The closing of Parachute is the closing of a door of opportunity for Christian musicians in
the future. The Festival is the opportunity for new and young talented Christians
musicians to be discovered, enter into the industry and flourish in their careers. More
specifically, it is a place where these musicians may have great exposure and
experience, and to have an audience when they progress their careers further outside of
the festival.
The festival has brought Christian music outside the walls of Church events and
organisations, bringing it to broadcast Christian ideas and messages to non-believers.
The festival has brought a new purpose for Christian music. Instead of just being a
religious practice of worship, it now can be used as a media to influence others. It is now
being used for entertainment, evident by the domination of Parachute bands and solo
musicians on the NZ itunes charts in the week after the festival. With the many
musicians who have come and performed in this festival, such as the Parachute band,
Brooke Fraser, Rapture Ruckus and Family Force 5, it is likely that this change will
continue on for the years to come.
We are losing a festival that has lead the development of contemporary Christian music
especially as it has discovered new talents in NZ. It has also promoted the reputation of
this genre as it places it on the same platform as other international musicians and other
genres of music, giving Christian musicians the professional respect in the industry. A
festival is a celebration, and this one celebrates Christian music.

In the NZ music scene this is a loss of a medium for Christian faith to influence and
impact pop culture, broadcasting and exposing non-believers and those unaware of
Christian ideas on a large scale. It provides a place that bridges the social gap between
some non-Christian and Christian in our community, leading to Christians being
understood and accepted. A loss of a place for families, teens and tweens for summer
entertainment as well as having uplifting positive messages of hope found in both the
music and speakers; even preventing one man from committing suicide. For the younger
people in Christian communities, the festival has been an annual tradition and losing it is
a loss of their culture in practice of worship.
With the closing of this door, opens another, says Mark De Jong. With the Festival now
closed, they are now able to put more efforts in the other events and activities they run.
In their artist development initiative in which they personally mentor artists in their
career in song writing or in creating music videos or running Noise seminars which help
musicians train their music skills and possibly creating new events. As he suggests in this
quote, One artist who really breaks through can actually have more impact on people
than an event of 20,000 people. While for the last 24 years, the festival has brought a
spotlight and introduction of contemporary Christian music to be accepted, recognised
and acknowledged amongst our communities and for the confidence of Christian
musicians in the NZ music scene, the next step may be to focus on the artistry of
individual music artists that will really bring about an impact on a possibly international
scale.