Closure of independent festivals mean emerging artists will lose important launch pad, music insiders say
On New Year’s Eve 1998, a few hundred people gathered for a dance party on a clifftop above the black sands of Karioitahi beach, south of Auckland. It was wild and lo-fi. Inspired by outdoor raves in Goa, India, and New Year’s Eve parties in the hills of the South Island, there were stilt walkers and fire performers and all kinds of dance music. It was called Splore, a Scottish word meaning merrymaking and frolicking.
Fat Freddy’s Drop played their first ever festival show at Splore, and have gone on to become a festival favourite in Europe. Other acts followed that path. For nearly three decades, Splore was an unofficial launchpad – where a band or DJ used to playing to a hundred people could suddenly be on a main stage in front of thousands. People came back year after year, they brought their children. Their children brought their own friends.