A sunset swim in Natadola Bay, Fiji, is the perfect Friday wind-down, and I can barely believe there’s three days of this before the event proper begins.
In a group briefing on Saturday morning, I chat with Marie Gray, co-founder of Sydney-based Music in Paradise (MiP): “Our international events are six or seven days. It takes a couple of days for people to settle into new surroundings, get used to the heat and humidity, so we ensure there’s lots of time to swim, snorkel, surf, golf, relax.”
MiP marries performances by a singer or band (sometimes multiple bands) with a resort — usually by a renowned surf-break, and/or on an island.
I can attest that if you travel from WA direct to the tropics, you’ll want to acclimatise for a day or two, to be at your best before the first of three shows starts.
By the time Monday evening arrives I’ve struggled through three days of beach, snorkel and swim, and when the band walks on stage, I’m giddy with it.
The voice of Josh Teskey seems to be projecting straight out of the fiery Fiji sunset behind him, touching every one of the 250 hearts (event sold out) of the people around me.
Nobody knows how the soul of Otis Redding ended up in the body of a blonde hippy from Melbourne, but here we are.
Along with every album track on Half Mile Harvest (2017), The Teskey Brothers include a Ray Charles song as well as an unforgettable version of INXS hit Never Tear Us Apart.
“This will be a challenge for us, three gigs in four days in front of the same crowd. So, we’ll do something the band has never tried before — perform each of our last three studio albums in full,” Josh Teskey declares with a beaming smile, and the crowd cheers.
The venue for this event is the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa, a holiday paradise for surfers, snorkelers, golfers and pina colada-lapping poolside loungers.
Electric buggies ferry people around the sprawling resort, and there’s a regular shuttle bus to nearby Natadola Bay Championship Golf Course.
There are three restaurants on site to choose from, and I make Sanasana, named for the neighbouring village, my daily for breakfast and dinner.
Especially as a solo traveller, I like an international buffet where I can graze, try whatever looks interesting. Themed dinners include “Fijian Flair” and “Asian Odyssey”, the former featuring coconut or papaya in most curries and desserts. Among Fiji’s population of about 940,000, about 40 per cent are of Indian descent— most of them descendants of the indentured labourers coerced to come here (circa 1880-1920) and harvest sugar cane.
Colonial misadventures aside, curries remain ubiquitous throughout Fiji.
The breakfast buffet includes unlimited barista-made coffees, a fact that would get half the people I know over the line to make a holiday booking. This is the fourth MiP event at the InterContinental Fiji, although its original base of operations (since 2014), remains Kandooma Resort in the Maldives.
On Tuesday, 38 of us muster at reception for a visit to nearby Malomalo public school. MiP supports community projects wherever it goes, and in this case there’s a gathering of schoolkids and teachers to say thanks.
Sam Teskey, younger brother of Josh, is an enthusiastic participant in the kids’ soccer game; meanwhile, the rest of us visit classrooms and chat with teachers.
“It’s great to be able to see the refurbished bathrooms, new photocopier, new air-conditioning, school supplies,” says Marie, speaking on everyone’s behalf. A reminder that a small business can have a big impact, especially in developing communities where a little goes a long way.
Storms have drifted around for much of Wednesday afternoon, but by sunset showtime – the band this time performing every song from Run Home Slow (2019) — the sky is barely dappled by clouds. They finish with an a capella rendition of Hold Me, every band member hopping down offstage to sing among the audience.
It’s midday Thursday when I catch up with MiP co-founder Jamie Gray, who gestures towards where his daughter Kali is on the beach, running a surf tuition session for some local teens. “A few mates have donated soft learn-to-surf boards, which we’ll leave here so Fijian kids can teach surfing to tourists, hopefully start to make a living.”
Jamie is possessed of the cheerful optimism that has carried MiP through tropical weather events and, in recent years, regional COVID lockdowns.
“It’s always my hope that everyone who attends a MiP event will see at least one perfect sunset show. If we get two or even three, that’s a bonus,” he says.
As if to prove Marie’s and Jamie’s resilience, by mid-afternoon it’s raining the way it often does in the tropics, like swimming pools falling from the sky. The stage and sound crew pivot on a proverbial dime, and by 7pm the band and audience are set up indoors in a large conference room.
I chat for a bit here with Kali, who’s studying marine biology. “I hope to specialise in sharks, do whatever I can to ensure their survival,” she shares.
It seems that helping communities flourish and the oceans stay healthy are two ways the Gray family plans to continue to walk the walk.
The event closes with the last song on album The Winding Way (June 2023), a hand-clapping foot-stomping gospel opus titled What Will Be.
As a staunch non-believer, I admit this might be the closest I’ll ever come to getting religion. Josh Teskey’s voice and Sam Teskey’s guitar light up the stage, and the entire band of seven, which includes two women on horns and vocals, and not to mention much of the audience, are all singing and swaying.
There’s just time for one last sunrise swim, and it’s only after I’m home that I discover Natadola Bay is widely considered Fiji’s finest beach.
Hard to poke any holes in the argument that this is indeed music in paradise.
musicinparadise.com.au
+ Cameron Wilson was a guest of Music in Paradise. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication.
https://thewest.com.au/travel/music-in-paradise-c-21324624
