Culture

4/5
Glazed eyes, smiles, and high-fives all round.

Midway through their bone-jarring set, Laughtan Kora stops and asks the Homegrown crowd, “How good it is to live in this beautiful country called Aotearoa?” And he’s right, our little nation in the middle of the South Pacific put on a festival that could rival any other. All you had to do was look at the line up: Kora, Katchafire, The Black Seeds, Salmonella Dub, The Upbeats, Minuit, Shihad, Liam Finn, Pluto, The Mint Chicks ... It was hard not to be a little bit patriotic.
 
The third annual Homegrown Music festival was held on five stages and encompassed 35 premier locally-born bands and DJs, as well as New Zealand's best break-dancing talent over 12 hours. New Zealand's music lovers turned out in full force: 14 000 fans from around the country descended upon the Wellington waterfront on this beautiful summer’s day for an extremely well run event. There were glazed eyes, smiles, and high-fives all day long as revellers soaked up the sun and the tunes. Every facet of the festival was run in impressive fashion, with food and drink lines to a minimum, and security almost ninja-like in work and appearances. Perhaps the best aspect over the day was festival-goers having no problem gaining access to any band, no matter how popular or how large the crowd.
 
The festival, as usual, was split into two zones covering Frank Kitts Park, TSB Arena, and Waitangi Park. Shihad and the Datsuns headlined the Jim Beam Rock Stage, The Mint Chicks headlined the Nokia Indie Stage, Kora and The Black Seeds were on the Dub and Roots Stage and Minuit and The Upbeats rounded out the line-up on the Smokefree Electro Stage. 
 
The only criticism that can be tagged to the festival is that there is too much variety on at one time. Although cliché, it makes the worst part of your day choosing between seeing Shihad, The Upbeats, Kora, or The Mint Chicks. My highlight had to be how electro veterans Minuit’s heavy pulsating beats had the crowd going wild on the electro stage.