Outdoor concerts - New Zealand summer life
New Zealand’s great outdoors presents some spectacular backdrops for summer music events and festivals in locations all over the country.
Summer concerts offer an opportunity to escape the city, relax and enjoy the best weather, music, food and drink - and a taste of the Kiwi lifestyle.
The summer programme includes everything from the heavy weight Rhythm & Vines, where thousands of festival-goers gather to rock in the new year, to smaller events in more intimate surroundings.
Rhythm & Vines - held annually in Eastland, near Gisborne, on the North Island’s eastern extremity - kicks the mid-summer / new year holiday season into action with a three-day uber-fest of bands performing in a vineyard setting.
Throughout the summer months, there’s a vineyard concert or two happening each week as part of a 16-stop outdoor winery tour, and New Zealand’s national holiday - Waitangi Day on 6 February - provides another occasion for big music events.
Two small islands off the coast of Auckland and Northland will provide a different backdrop for a series of outdoor concerts supporting conservation during summer 2011.
And, as summer draws to a close, the country’s biggest celebration of homegrown music is staged each year on Wellington’s waterfront, providing a picturesque setting to showcase the very best of New Zealand music.
Here’s a taster of New Zealand’s best known summer music events.
'Live at the Islands' summer concert series
December 2010 / February 2011
‘Live at the islands’ is a series of seven concerts from late December through to February 2011 that bring together music and conservation. The easily accessible island sanctuaries of Urupukapuka, in the Bay of Islands, and Motutapu Island, in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, will each provide a unique setting for evening concerts featuring some of New Zealand’s top musicians. And funds raised will help support the islands’ eco-restoration projects. Live at the Islands
Rhythm & Vines - Gisborne
29 - 31 December, 2010 / 2011
Nestled within rural Gisborne's rolling hills and amongst the vines of Waiohika Estate, Rhythm & Vines have created a purpose-built concert amphitheatre in a picturesque setting.
The three-day festival is internationally famous as the ‘place to be for new year’, and attracts 20,000-plus festival-goers to camp, swim, enjoy world-class entertainment and be the first in the world to see the new year in.
Rhythm & Vines 2010
Coromandel Gold - Coromandel
31 December, 2010 / 2011
Coromandel Gold - otherwise known as CoroGold - sells out months ahead of the New Year’s Eve festival that attracts an energetic 10,000-strong crowd to the little holiday town of Whitianga, on the Coromandel Peninsula - a popular Kiwi holiday spot. For 2010, headliner Aotearoa bands Shapeshifter, Trinity Roots, and The Black Seeds took to the stage in the beautiful surroundings of Ohuka Farm.
Coromandel Gold 2010 / 2011
La De Da - Martinborough
30 - 31 December, 2011
Set amongst the Alana Estate's rolling vineyards, in the boutique Martinborough wine region, La De Da is the new year party for New Zealand’s southern North Island and always offers a big lineup of New Zealand's top bands, artists, and DJs. The 2011 programme will include US surf rocker Donovan Frankenreiter, Australia's Blue King Brown, and local talent - Kora, Katchafire, Fat Freddy's Drop, and Six60.
La De Da 2011 / 2012
Big Day Out - Auckland
21 January, 2011
Seven stages, 60 international and New Zealand artists produce one heck of a good time. Big Day Out has cemented its place as one of the best live music festivals in the world. With a huge range of music to suit every taste, the amazing 2011 line-up included Tool, Rammstein, and Iggy & the Stooges.
Big Day Out 2011
More FM Winery Tour - nationwide
5 February - 5 March, 2011
The 16-destination More FM Winery Tour is a New Zealand-wide experience that combines beautiful settings, good food and wine, with headline Kiwi acts. The month-long 2011 programme - beginning on 5 February at Ascension Estate, in Matakana, and finishing at Auckland’s Villa Maria Estate on 5 March - features Kiwi singer Brooke Fraser, and bands Opshop and Midnight Youth.
More FM Winery Tour 2011
Raggamuffin - Rotorua
5 February, 2011
Rotorua’s annual reggae festival coincides with New Zealand’s national Waitangi Day holiday - which also happens to be the day after Bob Marley’s birthday. Raggamuffin 2011 features some of the world’s top reggae artists - Mary J Blige, Jimmy Cliff, Maxi Priest, Sean Paul, The Original Wailers, Ky-Mani Marley - along with a dose of funk, dub, hip-hop and soul.
Ragamuffin Festival 2011
Homegrown - Wellington Waterfront
5 March, 2011
Homegrown - on Wellington’s spectacular inner city waterfront - presents the cream of New Zealand music. With six stages and 45 bands, Homegrown is a Kiwi music extravaganza with a monster lineup which for 2011 includes big bills like Shapeshifter, Trinity Roots, Six60, and Katchafire.
Homegrown 2011
More information
Island concerts support NZ conservation
New Zealand Events
Making music in Aotearoa New Zealand
Live music in Aotearoa New Zealand
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| Summer concert-goers on Urupukapuka Island |
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| Rhythm & Vines is a major NZ music festival held at New Year, near Gisborne |
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| Music fans celebrating new year and summer |
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