Musical tour is a magical mystery

TWO year ten students are harnessing the power of music and quick response code technology to generate a sense of community connectedness.

Their initiative, the Ballarat Music Trail is a tuneful treasure hunt drawing people to various landmarks each week, where they can find and scan a QR code with their smartphone, and listen to a song.

Miss Sixteen is one of the initiative’s creators, wishing to keep her identity a secret to add further excitement to the project, which is run via Instagram account @ballaratmusictrail.

“We started the trail to express our love of music through different places around Ballarat, and thought it was a fun mystery for people to wonder who put the codes there,” she said.

“We post on the page, people see the location, can walk past that central place and scan the code we’ve stuck up. A song will play which they can reflect on, and interpret for themselves.”

The trail has been running for the last three weeks, offering music that will appeal to varying generations. The first code Miss Sixteen and her offsider placed in the CBD can still be found between Lydiard and Camp Streets.

“The original plan was to solely use the songs to share a message about a place, which we did in the first week, but in the second week we were inspired by an album cover.

“One of the latest points of the trail is a play on a title of a song and its location,” she said.

“My mum went and listened to the first song and thought it was an amazing feeling to stand, listen and reflect on the world at the moment.”

Miss Sixteen hopes it will become a COVID safe activity for friends and strangers to explore apart, before coming together to talk about it virtually.

“Through isolation, it felt like the right time to do a project like this. Everyone can partake, but they don’t necessarily need to be there at the one time,” she said.

As time goes on and more followers find the Instagram page, locating the codes may become more trickier for trail trackers.

“It’s been really enjoyable and a lot of fun for us. We’ve spent afternoons going to locations, putting up codes and taking photos.

“We share a love of music, but don’t often get to hang out and talk about it, and we hope that as it gets bigger, everyone can enjoy is as much as us, and look forward to the next song,” Miss Sixteen said.

Visit @ballaratmusictrail to start your Ballarat-style magical mystery tour and read more information.