By arts editor HELEN MUSA

As Australia’s live music sector continues to shift away from large-scale festivals, Berry on the NSW South Coast is showing how smaller regional music events might help fill the gap.

The village is about to host the next two instalments of its popular A Day Well Spent live music series, with venues across the town morphing into a live music precinct.

It’s all part of Extend the Weekend, a tourism initiative supported through the NSW Government’s UPTOWN Grant Program aimed at encouraging longer stays in regional destinations.

The national trend of rising costs, festival cancellations and changing audience behaviour challenging the traditional festival model might be good news for Berry.

A Day Well Spent spreads performances across venues including The Berry Hotel, Great Southern Hotel, Il Locale, Albert St Caffé, Le Bar, The Rutledge, The Garden and The Berry General Store, and is curated by South Coast live music collective Holy Pavlova.

The program blends emerging Australian indie acts with regional performers, including GRXCE, Joe Mungovan, Cheeky Leash, Club Camèl, Electric Ginger and Jimmy Vann of The Vanns.

Precinct coordinator Kate Dezarnaulds says, “We’re incredibly proud to have already paid more than 40 musicians through the series, with 67 performances programmed and a bumper Funk and Soul weekend to come in June.”

Berry musician Electric Ginger, who will perform a daytime disco set during the weekend, says, “There’s a real appetite for live music beyond the big cities, and Berry is starting to tap into that.”

A Day Well Spent, Berry. Indie, May 21 and 24; funk and soul, June 18 and 21.  More information here.