Crowdfunding secures future of city's Dance-O-Mat

Christchurch’s popular Dance-O-Mat will get its much-needed upgrade thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Gap Filler has managed to raise more than $25,000 on crowdfunding platform Boosted to cover the cost of upgrading and moving the Dance-O-Mat to a new site in Manchester Street.

The Dance-O-Mat has to be relocated because the site it has been on for the past seven years is where the new home for The Court Theatre is being built.

 Gap Filler’s Coralie Winn says they are pleased to have raised the funds needed to upgrade and relocate the Dance-O-Mat.

“It takes a lot of work to raise money via crowdfunding but it is so worth it for the togetherness it grows. It aligns with the community-minded spirit of the project to have so many different people, groups and companies make contributions. It’s wonderful.”

Some 340 donors contributed funds over the course of the six-week crowdfunding campaign, with many leaving comments about how much the Dance-O-Mat means to them.

“The Dance-O-Mat is one of the finest public infrastructures in the world!’’ one donor commented. “One of the best ideas and shows of community I've ever participated in,’’ another wrote.

“We always knew it was one of our best-loved projects but seeing it like this, with so many different little gems of feedback, well, it’s just delightful,” says Ms Winn, who thanked everyone for their generous support.

The next steps for Gap Filler involve remediating the land on the project’s future Manchester Street site and then continuing with the deconstruction of the floor at its current site on Gloucester Street. Some components will be relocated to the new site while others have to be built anew.

All going well, the new and improved Dance-O-Mat will be launched in early May at 211 Manchester Street.