Youth prepare for day of music

KIAMA Showground will be host to 13 bands on Friday for an all-ages youth festival.

The festival, Crackerjats, is being run by Kiama Youth Centre as part of Youth Week and features a mix of local bands and ones from Sydney and Wollongong.

The headline act will be Sydney band Zombie Ghost Train.

Local bands The Butchers, Scatterplot, Laceration, Project 838, The Curse of Bert and The Conspiracy Plan are also on the program.

Senior youth worker Andrew Chatfield said the event was the highlight of Kiama"s Youth Week program.

Planning for the concert started last October when two young Kiama people approached Mr Chatfield with the idea to put on a festival.

"We took this to the entertainment committee, which is about 30 people, and discussed it with the council and so on," Mr Chatfield said.

"In the end we couldn"t have the whole big festival thing so we turned it into one big day with as many bands as possible."

The festival received $1000 from Kiama Council as part of its cultural grants program.

The event really belonged to the young people of Kiama, but he hoped everyone in the community would get behind it.

"If we have about 200 people turn up we"ll have a really good night," he said.

"We"re even having free entry for pensioners. Hopefully some grandparents will come to see their grandkids play."

The Crackerjats festival runs from noon-11pm at Kiama Showground Pavilion. Tickets are $15 and can be bought from Kiama Youth Centre (at the cottages in Hindmarsh Park) or at the door.