NZ’s Rhythm & Vines to increase camping capacity

New Zealand’s best-known festival Rhythm & Vines is to welcome more campers than ever to its 2024 edition after being granted a capacity increase.

R&V takes place from 29-31 December at the Waiohika Estate in Gisborne, headlined by Ice Spice, Pendulum and Luude.

Other artists on the lineup will include Sammy Virji, Peking Duck, Shy FX, RL Grime, Dope Lemon, Koven, Meduza, Coterie, Sir Dave Dobbyn, JYOTY and Lee Mvtthews. Three-day general admission passes cost NZ$429.30 (€233), or from $568.28 (€308) with camping.

Organisers of the 26,000-cap festival, which attracted 1,300 campers to its first edition – a one-day event held in 2003 – are expecting 18,000 people to camp on site after receiving permission to expand further by Gisborne District Council earlier this year.

“We got resource consent from [the council] this year to expand our camping capacity from 15,000 to 20,000,” Rhythm & Vines head of operations Dan Turner tells the New Zealand Herald.

“R&V is the only festival I know of that lets people leave [the] site during the day”

Previous headliners include Public Enemy, Moby, Central Cee, Chase & Status, LCD Soundsystem, Wiz Khalifa, Bastille and Chance the Rapper.

“The issue was not getting people to R&V, but with limited accommodation and camping options in Gisborne, it was being able to accommodate them,” adds Turner. “R&V is the only festival I know of that lets people leave [the] site during the day. People don’t just come to Gisborne to go to R&V, they come to go to the beaches, they want to experience the East Coast.”

Live Nation, which recently announced plans to operate a new theatre in New Zealand’s fastest growing city of Hamilton in partnership with Waikato Regional Property Trust, took a controlling interest in Rhythm & Vines in 2018.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s biggest one-day festival Electric Avenue is also growing for its 10th anniversary edition next year. Staged by local production company Team Event, the festival will expand to two days in Hagley Park, Christchurch, from 21-22 February 2025.

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