Oops! It seems that Tauranga has rather dropped the ball as far as the Rugby World Cup goes.

Big screens? No big screens? Arguments raged as to whether there should have been big screens along The Strand, and now council has decided there will be one.

So far, in lieu of fan zones or big screens, there was the kick off of the Real Festival last week, the event that proudly claims to show off the culture and people of Tauranga. It featured a tribute to Joe Cocker and the Eagles; about 300 people braved the rain.

Now I sympathise with any event that gets messed with by rain but I can't help wondering what it cost to put on two touring tribute acts for 300 people (not to mention speculating how listening to covers of the Eagles has anything to do with Tauranga, The Bay, or New Zealand). And I think of those really good Tauranga bands, who can happily draw 300 people, probably charge less money, and then keep that money in the (struggling) local economy. Perhaps big screens would have been a better idea from the start.

Organiser Amy Porter says they tried to get a big screen early on but it didn't work out. They were too expensive. Another organiser, Aaron McCallion is reported on the SunLive website as saying: 'We didn't want to compete with the bar zone, which has big screens to watch the rugby”. Coincidentally, at least some of these planners work for the Cornerstone pub where it was packed for the opening night. Lucky, really, that the festival decided not to compete with the bar zone.

But this is just business as usual for Tauranga – until now the vocal ratepayers have stayed silent in front of their flat screen TVs, contentedly knowing their money wasn't being spent on the sort of frivolities that might revitalise the CBD. That might be about to end. Time to tip our hat to the likes of the Boobs on Bikes parade. It brought a whole pile of people downtown, it had as much local input as the Real Festival, and didn't cost ratepayers anything – the perfect event for Tauranga. Who could possibly object to that?

But I seem to have got sidetracked again…

I was going to spend this week looking at more of the splendid array of acts being presented at October's Tauranga Arts Festival, specifically some of the musical happenings that really float my boat.

First up is a duo that blew away the people gathered at the festival launch when a short clip was played of them. They are Antonio Forcione and Adriano Adewale. Antonio Forcione is a virtuoso Italian guitarist and something of a legend in the world of modern flamenco guitar. He's recently put out a new album, his first in five years, Sketches of Africa. The man is both a master of the instrument and a fantastic live entertainer. His collaboration with Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale has been inspiring rave reviews and, from the clip we saw and other snippets on YouTube, will be electrifying.

And, since these are my personal picks here, I should declare right now that I'm a sucker for a pretty Irish singer. Actually, they don't have to be pretty, as long as they can sing, but Pauline Scanlon is both and is bringing her own band of Irish musicians. Folk music fans will want to brew up a mess of poteen before the show and wallow in the songs of the Emerald Isle. Good news for those living further north is that she's also doing a show at The Landing in Katikati.

And then there's a little western oddity. The Sad Lament of Pecos Bill on the Eve of Killing his Wife. This is a bit of a mystery item, a western campfire around which sit two mythical Texans, Pecos Bill and Slue-Foot Sue, the bride who bounded to the moon on Bill's wild steed with fatal consequences. It's a sort of cowboy rock opera, a tall one-act Texas tale but – most important of all – it was written by Sam Shepherd, now known primarily as an actor but whom I look on as possibly the best American playwright of the last 40 years (this was written in the seventies). Take a chance – it will be da bomb!