Raglan was invaded by an army of ukulele players and their fans over the weekend as the first ever Raglan Ukulele Festival was held to full houses everywhere they went. The regular Live and Local event was dominated by the instrument on Friday Night and then Saturday saw a series of workshops and classes, culminating in a gig at the Club with locals acts the Ragtimers, a 30 piece outfit, the Blister Sisters, and the original Whaingaroa Ukulele troup That’s Us, along with special guests Sonia & Nigel. Nigel Gavin being a virtuoso musician often seen playing 7 and 11 string guitars but was more than happy to apply his shredding skills to the 4 string ukulele for the night.
The headline act for the night was the Big Muffin Serious Band. In their 40th year of playing they predate the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, who are often credited with initiating the Ukulele third wave. Despite this longevity and being based just over the divvy in Te Pahu it was their first time in Raglan. They proved to new audience members that the jokes are nothing without the very obvious musical skills they have.
Sunday morning saw Ukulele groups popping up all around the middle of Raglan while a series of free concerts proved popular at the Raglan Market with the Creative Space overflowing with fans.
Energy Company Blue Float was in town last week to announce plans for an 810MW windfarm off the coast of Raglan. Speaking at the recent community board meeting they said the farm would be 22km off the coast and visible on a clear day from higher parts of the coast as the turbines would be much larger than the Te Uku windfarm
Blue Float is a Spanish company that will be working with New Plymouth company Elemental Group. They say they're always keen to invest in local communities when they construct new projects but no specifics were given as the project is in very early stages at the moment - so early in fact, that the feasibility study hasn’t started yet.
If the proposal were to go ahead the final decision to invest would be at the end of the decade with the windfarm coming online in 2033 at the earliest.
In the Raglan Community Board forum there were concerns expressed about how the recent rate rises were calculated with staff emphasising that it’s very complicated but also warning that a new round of property valuations will be happening in the next year. These will have a negative effect on communities that have had higher than average real estate increases compared to other parts of the district.
Also from the meeting, the Greenslade community is about to presented with a couple of options for their new playground, the fix for the Manu Bay Breakwall has been delayed again as consultants have been diverted to cyclone repair projects, work continues behind the scenes for the local bus service and the community board will be holding a meeting soon about Civil Defence preparation in our community