Hidden ever so slightly off Ponsonby Road on the corner of Richmond Road is Golden Dawn, one of those local bars that offers everything you could want.
Matthew Crawley is the man behind the music at Golden Dawn, curating the live bands and the DJs that have made Golden Dawn the destination it now is. He sat down to discuss the beginnings of the bar and how they came to still be doing it today. “It took
a good six months of planning to make it happen. I’d done the live music at five different venues in Auckland before, but had never had a partnership in a place before. Stephen Marr, who owns the building and the bar, found out that I was someone who’d done this sort of thing and that I was currently available. He called me in to a meeting and asked if I wanted to be involved in this new thing he was doing with the space he had.”
Crawley, like many others in the music promoting and curating business, was pretty close to being done with it all but Marr convinced him to come on board as the plan was for the bar to be only around for a year and a half or two years. “We put in a bunch of time and now I’m one of four people responsible for the place, as entertainment manager.”
Much of the success of Golden Dawn can be attributed to the way they come across and what they’ve presented themselves as. “The wording of things when we first opened was venues are way harder to make successful than bars. Our other main owner had a big part in venues in Wellington that were part hospitality and part crazy fun and said we don’t have to call ourselves a venue to still be the best one in town.”
Golden Dawn as a live music venue benefits from being a destination for those that are not as interested in the music, and so people walk through the door every night of the week, regardless of whether a band is playing. Most venues can’t say this, and Crawley attributes it to a few things. “It is why we’ve kept our door charge at five dollars, because we have a small venue space but a big hang out space,” so the band do better having people come through to spend time in the hang out space. “We try to be as many things as possible to as many people as possible, that’s kind of the goal we’ve gone for. Whatever we did, do it well and be nice people.”
One of their big focuses is on original music, and they offer a wide variety of genres multiple times a week. Alongside the live music is a DJ in the outdoor courtyard; you won’t find a professional dance music DJ at Golden Dawn, but this is partly out of respect to noise control and partly out of a desire to be slightly different.
Nick Harrison, Golden Dawn’s general manager, joined us for a brief chat about Ponsonby and the changes that have gone on in the last few years. “I’ve been working in Ponsonby for the last 10 years and the change is very noticeable. It’s been gradual until the last two years when it’s been massive. The infrastructure in many places hasn’t quite kept up with the number of people coming through.” Obviously this is referring to weekend nights and the presence of many night clubs that weren’t present two years ago. Golden Dawn loves the Ponsonby strip, and are more than happy to be part of this changing scene.
“Some people plan what they want to be,” Crawley says. “The only way we can operate is to be an eccentric array of things, I always say yes to anything that sounds like a fun idea.” Golden Dawn, right down to their interesting and eclectic playlist, is 100% a fun idea. “We were curious if people would follow us around the corner, but we’re here for those that want to be here.” (FINN MCLENNAN-ELLIOTT)
Coming up at Golden Dawn: Saturday 2 April - Street Chant and Avoid! Avoid! Album Launch; Friday 8 April - The Wellington City Shake-‘Em-On-Downers; Saturday 9 April - Saturnian Noise Collective; Friday 15 April - Stretch, Fables and Friends; Saturday 16 April - The Rocking Roller-Coasters.
GOLDEN DAWN, 134 Ponsonby Road, T: 09 376 9929, www.goldendawn.co.nz