Bad weather forecast for summer festivals

It's been raining, for so long... Photo / NZ Herald

The predictions of more bad weather in the coming weeks - and months - doesn't bode well for upcoming outdoor concerts and festivals.

Though promoters and organisers of events such as the Classic Hits Winery Tour, A Day on the Green, and festivals like the Big Day Out and Laneway say the shows will go on rain or shine, the dodgy weather does affect ticket sales.

"It impacts on your late sales for sure," says Winery Tour and Big Day Out promoter Campbell Smith. "There is certainly a percentage of your audience who will be turned away by the weather. But those people who have bought tickets in advance will turn up. New Zealanders are hardy souls and they live in a country where rain is always around the corner."

And, says Maria Robinson from Frontier Touring, who put on December's sodden Foo Fighters' show at Western Springs and this month's A Day on the Green concerts with Hall and Oates at Auckland's Villa Maria Estate and Church Rd in Napier, music fans don't let the weather get in the way of them seeing their favourite bands.

"I guess the weather is a bit of a deterrent at the moment but A Day on the Green is a really popular event and we've already sold good numbers. And basically we always plan to go ahead and it's just the nature of the business when you've got outdoor concerts."

Down at Wynyard Quarter, the new home to Auckland's Laneway Festival on January 30, organisers will be putting up extra covered areas which will double as either rain or shade shelter depending on what sort of day it is.

Laneway's Mark Kneebone says because it's a relatively new site most of the trees are not big enough yet to provide proper cover.

"So we've just ordered a couple of hundred extra square metres of shade to be stretched out over the grass area and the friends and family bar. So depending on the weather it's either going to block you from the sun or block you from the rain. God willing it isn't going to rain, and in the last two Laneways there has been a bit of rain but we've coped pretty well. We'll be right, mate. A few [rain] ponchos."

In terms of tickets Kneebone says despite the weather they are on track for a near sell-out at the 6000-capacity event.

"We'd much prefer it to be a long hot summer but [tickets] are moving so we're not complaining - but the weather does affect your bar on the day. The sunnier it is the better your business."

-TimeOut