LOCAL vocalist and musician Karina Voigt says she is ready to light Stansbury up and get people out of their seats dancing at this year’s GROUNDED YP Arts Festival.

It is tough for anyone to break into the music industry, but for regional artists like farmer Ms Voigt there are even more barriers.

Growing up so remote, Ms Voigt said her love for music came from long road trips where she would sing along to the radio with her family.

However, her passion and drive has taken her all the way from the backseat of the car to performing on the stage at some of the peninsula’s most popular events and locations.

Years later, after a lot of networking in the local music scene, Ms Voigt is bringing her musical talents to this year’s GROUNDED YP Arts Festival.

“I think the GROUNDED festival is a wonderful thing to be on the Yorke Peninsula and we’re extremely lucky to be able to engage so many different towns,” Ms Voigt said.

“There’s just not enough events for people on the YP to get creative and show off their talents.

“There needs to be a lot more events, not only for musicians, but for everyone in the arts from photographers, painters and sculptors.”

Starting out, Ms Voigt said she was unaware of the YP music community, and living on a farm made it hard to find someone to bounce ideas off.

“It was only when I started to get my name out there through gigs and word of mouth that I actually started to meet more like-minded people,” she said.

“It’s one of those things that unless you actually have that support base, it’s something that’s extremely hard to get motivated to do.”

Despite now being somewhat of a pro, Ms Voigt said she still needed to address intruding thoughts when she performed.

“There’s so many anxious feelings that go through your mind when you’re playing a song,” she said.

“You think, ‘am I going to do the song justice or are these people going to like me’.

“I still get nervous now, but I just remember that these people actually want to be here, which makes it worth it.”

She encouraged other local artists to step up and take that scary leap, even if they also shared her concerns about performing.

“If you’ve got people who are playing in your area, go watch and ask those questions and get to know those people,” she said.

“Find out what they are doing and ask for advice about how you should start because they are the most beneficial people you’ll ever meet.

“That’s pretty much what I did.”