Bluff musician KC Barris is Southland's Entertainer of the Year after winning the headline award at the 2026 Southland Music Awards at ILT Stadium Southland on Saturday night.
Barris, who owns the trucking and machinery business Bluff Sand Supply, won the award after performing Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train with backing from the band Filth Wizard. The winner was decided by a panel of judges with help from audience voting.
He said he chose the song because its verse breaks gave him room to talk to the crowd, and that getting people involved and having fun was the aim of his game whenever he performed.
Barris fronts The Band of Bluffies, which formed in 2017 around a Bluff School reunion. The group learned seven songs in a few weeks for the occasion and has kept playing for almost a decade, with his father, Lee Barris, on lead guitar. He earlier played in Operation Rolling Thunder, a band that came through the Smokefree Rockquest, and later in Southern Antarctica.
His musical influences run in two directions: a mother who loved disco and a father who liked thrash metal. Osbourne has been a major influence on his stage presence.
Barris told the Southland Tribune he learned he was a finalist by email just before boarding a flight to Samoa for his wedding, and that being invited into the entertainer category, which he called the top dog prize, was "mind-blowing, really".
The winners
- Entertainer of the Year: KC Barris
- Band of the Year: Brenny & The Bushwhackers (finalists Highland Storm, Hoodaki)
- Vocalist of the Year: Simon Thompson
- Guitarist of the Year: Vance Manu
- Bass Player of the Year: Rhys White
- Keyboardist of the Year: Hollie Longman
- Drummer of the Year: Antonio Mercuri
- Instrumentalist Award: Megan Gooding
- Song of the Year: Bones, by Rhythmonyx
- EP of the Year: Slur, by Slur
- Album of the Year: Wooden Leg, by Anna van Riel
- Frank Prattley Award for emerging talent: Lara Kerr
Three musicians were inducted into the awards' Hall of Fame: Shannon Cooper-Garland, Hollie Longman and Asher Skerrett. Each inductee performs a live set on the night as part of the ceremony.
The awards are run by the Southland Musicians Club and carry ILT naming sponsorship. They cover instrumental, performance and recording categories, with the Entertainer of the Year award contested by up to six finalists who each perform live before the judges and the audience.
Vocalist finalists this year were Margi Ferguson, Jacinta Kerepeti Gilbert and Kayla Mahon, while Cav Clearwater, Michael Crook and Kian Eriksson were in contention for Guitarist of the Year. Anna van Riel's Betty and Halton Hart's Like Lainey were the other Song of the Year finalists, and Hoodaki's The Sound of a Cloud and Rhythm & Soul's Rhythm & Soul were finalists for EP of the Year.
Foul Play Syndicate's Mentaltainment and a release by Ronnie Stash & The Resistance were the other Album of the Year finalists.
