As a short synopsis,
Rhythm & Vines is held at the Waiohika Estate, Gisborne, New Zealand and
one of the bigger New Years Festivals that’s on offer here in the country. The
festival goes on for 3 days from the
29th December until New Years Day.
The Estate holds 5 stages:
Rhythm, Vines, Red Bull Music Academy, Cellar and
Jager, with both the Rhythm and Vines stages being the main focal points. Plus there’s
an awesome waterslide if you’re keen.
Since
Rhythm & Vines is held in New Zealand’s summer, there’s camping options
available at the estate, but also 10 minutes drive down the road is Baywatch or
BW Campgrounds, which can host 13000 campers on 4 of their sites right next to
the beach. Not only does BW have to offer campgrounds and basic facilities but
there is also the Soundshell stage that hosts international and local artists
throughout the day/evening. Earlybird tickets 2 days before Rhythm & Vines
Festival are available so you can catch these additional International Artist
and make your New Years Experience a 5 day one, if you’re keen – you’ll also
need an additional week to recover after the festival so make sure you take
that time off work.
2011/12 was a milestone for Rhythm & Vines with a sell out of 29,000 attendees on
New Years Eve, excluding the 2000 staff onsite. Not only that a new electronic
wallet was tested out for the festival which was able to be used at both BW and
RNV sites. The AWOP electronic wristband contained your tickets loaded onto them
but then also you could load it up with money at the AWOP sites and you don’t
have the luggage of your wallet to carry around the festival. Just need to scan
the wristband and the transaction is complete – bearing in mind you have enough
credit on it.
I was
lucky enough to gain media accreditation and shot the festival for Rhythm &
Vines, with a team of 8 other photographers including Paul Hoelen – one of the
top events photographers in Australasia. I also met Connor Crawford, a new
addition to DataTransmission NZ – Make sure you check out his photos from
Rhythm & Vines at
www.datatransmission.co.nz/photos/Go to page 1 2 3 4