A new vibe is hitting Mount Maunganui this New Year's Eve as some of New Zealand's top musical acts come together for an inaugural festival.
The Mount Vibes festival is taking hold, with tickets to the R18 event at ASB Baypark selling fast and 50 per cent of the camping spots gone.
Mount Vibes promoters Morgan Dynes and Pato Alvarez are ready for the New Year's Eve gig at ASB Baypark.
It's the first time the festival has been run, and organisers have secured some top names in NZ music with headliners including The Black Seeds, Homebrew, Aaradhna, I Am Giant, Blacklistt and Sons of Zion.
Organiser and promoter Pato Alvarez says the Mount is the ideal place for the overnight festival; and with Coromandel Gold and Papamoa's Exodus on hiatus this year, the gig is attracting audiences from throughout the upper North Island.
'Tauranga and Mount Maunganui has always been looking for this and we are making it happen.
'A lot of people want to come from out of town, especially Aucklanders, and spend New Year's Eve at The Mount.”
The event will be held inside the ASB Baypark Stadium on December 31, with overnight camping available for up to 2500 people.
The doors open at 3pm, with the first band starting at 4pm, and will run through until 12.30am on January 1.
Pato and co-promoter Morgan Dynes have worked hard to secure a mix of genres Pato says will appeal to audiences across the board.
'We have a bit of everything. We have the Black Seeds, who are probably one of the biggest reggae-dub bands in New Zealand.
'We have some dub-reggae bands, hip hop and rock with the likes of Blacklistt and I Am Giant. We have something for everyone.”
Pato hopes to build the event in the next five years, with inquiries underway to book international acts in future.
'We are doing our best to improve the event and next year we hope to make it bigger.
'We want to attract a lot of people from Tauranga and bring a lot of people from out of town.
'Not only do we want to attract business for ourselves, but we want to bring business into the community as well.”
Pato believes if they can attract about 4000-5000 people from out of town, the city will benefit.
At the close of the event, buses will run from ASB Baypark to Papamoa, Greerton, Mount Maunganui and into Tauranga.
There is also a special surprise planned for midnight, but Pato can't give too much away.
Tickets are available online here or from Brewers Bar and Satori Lounge in Mount Maunganui.Early bird tickets of $100 are available until December 1.
2 comments
Council uses rates to compete?
Posted on 27-11-2013 07:03 | By Murray.Guy
Last year an alternative new years eve concert / entertainment was successfully held at Papamoa. This year at ASB Stadium. Another event New Years Eve at the G2 Event Centre at Greerton and the City Council continues to use $200,000 or so in rates to compete with them? Twelve years ago a 1/4 million new years eve fund was established to stage activities at the Mount in response to unruly behaviour. At the time the community was told this was only until commercial sponsorship picked up the tab - 12 years later the City Council has made no inroads into commercial sponsorship and actively competes with private event options.
murray.guy
Posted on 27-11-2013 08:20 | By Capt_Kaveman
yip i truly believe the voters have got it wrong and you of all should still be there i failed in my bid but will be back
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