Gisborne’s Rhythm and Vines will be at the biggest campground in New Zealand this summer with 18,000 campers expected at the New Year’s music festival.
From humble beginnings of around 1300 people camping on site in 2003, the number has grown dramatically over the festival’s 21 years.
Resource consent granted by Gisborne District Council this year has given it room to grow further.
With the closure of the BW campground at Waikanae Beach after a riot in 2014, Rhythm and Vines had to find a way to accommodate festivalgoers.
“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,” says Rhythm and Vines head of operations Dan Turner.
There are five different campgrounds at Rhythm and Vines at separate locations on Waiohika Estate.
“We got resource consent from [the council] this year to expand our camping capacity from 15,000 to 20,000,” Turner said.
The biggest challenge is setting up the plumbing and ablution facilities.
“With 18,000 campers that’s a lot of toilets and showers and we put a huge amount of effort into making sure the systems function well.”
Site and camp management teams started setting up at the beginning of December, with about 150 crew working at the site now.
The festival offers various camping options with ‘Bookatent’ and premium glamping available. There will be around 1500 bookatents set up accommodating about 3500 people as well as the glamping bell tents which can sleep up to four people.
Another challenge is traffic management, Turner says.
“R&V is the only festival I know of that lets people leave [the] site during the day.”
“That’s the beauty of Tairāwhiti – 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.”
Turner said he and his team “live and breathe R&V”.
“We work so hard, especially in the last four or five weeks. When the fireworks go off and you’re with the people you love, there’s nothing better than that,” he said.
“We put in long hours and it’s all worthwhile when you see everyone enjoying themselves. It’s a pretty epic moment watching the fireworks – you feel a wave of emotions.”
Everything at the festival has to be set up by December 23 for the Christmas break, then the food vendors and production equipment will start arriving on Boxing Day, December 26.
Festivalgoers can expect a re-vamped look and feel to the festival with some new stage designs and art activations this year.
This edition of Rhythm and Vines is on track to be sold out with 26,000 attendees on New Year’s Eve, making this the biggest Rhythm and Vines attendance since 2012 (28,000).
More than 50% of attendees each year have not attended the festival before.
The award-winning music festival opens up to campers on December 28, with the festival officially kicking off on December 29, through to the first sunrise on January 1.
The festival raised $31,000 for the Gisborne Mayoral Relief Fund and will continue to focus its fundraising efforts to support the festival’s home town.
In the years before the Gisborne floods, Rhythm and Vines successfully raised over $62,500 for Lifeline.
It employs around 1000 local staff from the site build crew, to bar, camping, waste management, and security staff, with 30-40 local businesses involved across site suppliers and event contributors.
The team recently launched its Warrant of Festival Fitness - a checklist which covers some of the key safety features of the festival with attendees.
Since 2003, more than 350,000 Kiwis and international travellers have attended Rhythm and Vines. This year will be the festival’s 22nd edition.
