New Music and Arts Festival Announced for Bay of Plenty

A major new international music and arts festival arrives in Tauranga this January, providing an opportunity to stamp the region’s unique mark firmly upon the New Zealand summer festival circuit.

The McLaren Falls Music & Arts Festival will take place at the picturesque McLaren Falls Park, Bay of Plenty from 10-12 January 2016. The lake and bush setting nestled below the Kaimai Ranges - and only 20 minutes drive from Tauranga - features rolling hills, glow worm caves and forests, and an onsite camping experience amongst the wilderness.

The festival will host three days of first class music with promoters promising a genre-bending lineup of international and local heavyweights careening between the realms of pop, rock, folk, electronica, psychedelia, blues, soul, hip-hop, world, alternative and beyond.

Festival director Paxton Talbot’s motivation was to create an event with broad appeal and vibrancy to fill a space that has been missing from the New Zealand festival calendar. "McLaren Falls is a music and arts festival that makes room and welcomes all kinds of music. We want to bring together people from all ages and walks of life to an event that is culturally rich and inspiring. People can relax, they can get wild, they can dance, they can hang back and soak it all in."


Photo courtesy of SWPR

With extensive experience working in director roles for music festivals in both New Zealand and throughout Europe, Talbot believes McLaren Falls Festival will "bring a taste of Glastonbury and Coachella to the Pacific in both the style of the lineup and the approach to the festival site."

The festival has been built on the notion of quality of curation and being able to present a relevant and exciting international programme alongside a great mix of Australian and New Zealand artists at the top of their game.

"We’ve picked these artists with excellence in mind," Talbot says. "Bands and performers who, no matter their genre, will be able to speak to any member of the audience on some level, just due to their sheer calibre."

The festival aims to attract 10,000 people to the Bay of Plenty for a three-day celebration of music from various reaches of the spectrum, As well as a major music programme on multiple open-air stages, the festival will also feature visual and performing arts, markets, and workshops and wellness, all located in an 'other-worldly' location with lakeside camping, waterfalls and a glow-worm forest. 

“The Bay of Plenty is a pretty special place to spend time over the summer and we’re just excited to be offering another option for festival lovers to come and enjoy music and arts in a location which is going to create great memories."

The line up for the McLaren Falls Music & Arts Festival will be announced in August with tickets going on sale from 17 August through www.mff.co.nz