The Rhythm and Alps Festival in Wanaka was sold out in 2021 (pictured), but this year attendance was up 10-20 percent on last year. Photo: RNZ
It has been a mixed bag for event organisers as the New Year's music festival season comes to an end.
While ticket sales are up, poor weather has been a downer for some would-be ravers.
Up to 10,000 people were expected to spend the three days before New Year's nestled in Cardrona Valley, between Queenstown and Wanaka. Rhythm and Alps general manager Harry Gorringe said the figures did not not disappoint, with attendance up by between 10 and 20 percent.
The weather mostly played ball and while the clean-up was ongoing, punters had left the farm station in better condition than previous years.
"That could be a combination of the youth mentality of recycling and reusing things, as well as a gentle push from our end, but we're rapt with the way that the site looks this year compared to years previous," Gorringe said, noting campers this year were offered a fast-food voucher if they took their tents with them.
However, it had not been smooth sailing everywhere - an hour north of Auckland, in Mangawhai, Northern Bass had to close ticket sales early because of unprecedented rainfall.
Festival-goers complained of camping in ankle-deep mud, cars stuck in swamped paddocks, and problems with drinking water.
Director Gareth Popham said about 10,000 people attended, despite the bad weather.
"We obviously knew the rain was coming so we put lots of gravel into the site for vehicle movements, unfortunately you can't do that in the carparking paddock because we're obviously on a farm," he said.
"We also brought in an unprecedented amount of mulch, but mulch only does so much if the rain just keeps coming."
Know Your Stuff was one of three drug checking organisations covering the festival circuit. Deputy manager Jez Weston said the groups collectively performed more than 2500 tests in the last week.
He said unlike previous years, most of the drugs tested this summer did not have other substances in them.
"The harm that we've seen has been from people mixing drugs, people combining alcohol and other drugs, people taking way too much, or just people having a really hard time in the mud because there's been some pretty grim weather conditions."
However, not all festival-goers had access to drug testing on-site. Hidden Lakes co-founder Mitch Ryder said about 5000 people attended the one-day festival at Christchurch's North Hagley Park, a thousand more than the previous year.
He said organisers supported drug-testing, despite a no-drug policy at the festival - but local rules prevented them from offering the service.
"Our local licensing authority weren't keen to see us having drug-testing onsite, it would have implicated our alcohol licence so unfortunately we needed to kind of move away from that this year, but we certainly want to use them in the future wherever we can."
Meanwhile in Tairāwhiti, just over 24,000 people saw in the new year at Rhythm and Vines.
Fundraising by festival organisers raised over $25,000 towards the Gisborne Flood Relief Mayoral Fund, and local police thanked most people for partying responsibly.
