Young artists to let the beat drop

AN upcoming event is giving emerging local artists a chance at the spotlight.

Facilitated by Under Shelter and Lucky Entertainment Live, Under the Lights will take place in September and aims to highlight the city’s hip-hop and R&B newcomers.

Show director David Zietsman said the idea was sparked from conversations with two of the city’s emerging artists.

“I’ve been working with two Ballarat artists, Sami and Prism, and what they were saying is there’s not a lot of opportunity in Ballarat to play a big show,” he said.

“So we thought it’d be really cool to put on a moderate to large scale show in town and empower all these local kids who are making music and looking to get themselves out there.

“The idea for Under Shelter itself is to give up and coming artists a platform and voice and to have them be seen so this is really a hyper-local extension of that.”

Nine artists aged between under 20 are lined up for the all-ages event, with Prism and Sami headlining.

The show will be the second performance for Prism, real name Lewis Cotsell, who started releasing music six months ago.

He said the show is “a big deal” for Ballarat’s fledgling creatives.

“Just getting up there and seeing the crowd and knowing they’re there for us is hopefully just the start of something great,” he said.

“I feel like a big part of it is about the local hype from the community and getting backed by them now instead of later on when we’ve already taken off.

“We’ve been decently involved in setting this up. Sami and I chose most of the people on the bill so it’s really been almost a by artists, for artists kind of thing.”

Under the Lights will take place on Friday, 23 September at the Ballaraat Mechanics’ Institute’s Minerva Space. Tickets will range in price from $15 to $25 with subsequent releases