Taking to the stage at the Bay of Plenty music festival One Love 2024 will be the milestone local bands Corella and Origin Roots Aotearoa have been waiting for.
Both bands will be performing at One Love for the first time, as part of the festival’s
One Love 2024: Corella and ORA share their journeys to the festival stage
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It was One Love 2020 that changed Campbell’s life. He remembered jamming in the crowd with his friend and bandmate Te Ngawe.
“Sean Paul and Shaggy were there and we just had a moment.”
At that moment, the two friends decided to turn their cover band into a band that wrote original songs with the goal of making it to the One Love stage.
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Working hard through the Covid-19 pandemic, Corella self-funded their first single and released it before the end of 2020.
“It was like starting from scratch,” Campbell said.
Three years later, they got the call they’d been waiting for. Corella became one of over 50 artists lined up for One Love 2024.
“We were hooting and hollering,” Campbell said.
“It’s been our band’s goal. When we finally got asked to be there, it was surreal.”
Campbell said a lot of Corella’s songs were built with the One Love stage in mind.
“It will be a high-energy, sing-along experience.”
But at the end of the day, Campbell said audiences will be able to enjoy a performance by “a bunch of friends who started putting music together for the love of it”.
For Rotorua band Origin Roots Aotearoa (ORA), the chance to perform at One Love is a milestone three years in the making.
“I had a five-year plan to get us here,” ORA lead vocalist, songwriter and guitarist Eugene Temara said.
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“But I believed we were going to get here faster. We’ve done it in three.”
ORA was formed during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. The group’s first performances were put together to help Kiwi families overseas feel connected to home.
Temara said One Love was important for New Zealand because it showcased the country’s “homegrown reggae sound”.
“It’s time to showcase who we are,” Temara said.
Temara said it was important for him and for ORA to bring authenticity and te reo Māori to the One Love stage.
“I live and breathe te reo Māori in my day-to-day life,” Temara said.
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“That is what we want people to feel, the true essence of who we are.”
Temara said ORA had already decided on their set list for the event.
“There’s a song called Nui Te Aroha which basically means much love or lots of love,” Temara said.
“That’s what we’re there for. We are there to share unconditional love.”
More than 25 new acts, including five international and over 20 local artists were announced as part of One Love’s line-up this week.
The two-day festival, set to take place at Tauranga Domain in January, will mark One Love’s 10th year and a “refresh” for the event after it was cancelled in 2022 due to Covid-19 and wild weather forced another cancellation earlier this year.
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One Love Festival promoter Glenn Meikle said 2024 was the perfect time for a refresh.
“After 10 years it’s the perfect time to refresh the iconic One Love Festival and we can’t wait to make a massive impact and return in a major way,” Meikle said.
Meikle said adding a second stage provided an opportunity to include more artists at One Love and also showcase more up-and-coming Kiwi musicians to bigger crowds.
“We love New Zealand music and we know our One Love whānau appreciate homegrown talent. We want to do what we can to cater to both artists and fans.
“One Love tickets were selling well before we doubled the line-up so we’re expecting them to move even quicker now.”
