When Hamish Pinkham, Tom Gibson, and Andrew Witters dreamed up Rhythm and Vines, the famous Gisborne music festival, they were sitting in Dunedin’s now-closed student pub, The Gardies.
It was the crown jewel of Castle St, the cornerstone of the University of Otago’s scarfie community, home to International Nude Day, $4 jugs of beer and plenty of New Zealand students who were not only huge music lovers, but also big party animals. It couldn’t have been a more inspiring location for the trio’s brainstorming session — and marketing opportunity.
“We’d walk around the pub with our photo of Waiohika Estate and we’d try to tell all our mates about our vision,” Pinkham tells the Herald with a chuckle.
Reflecting on the festival’s debut year in 2003, he credits the success to the networking opportunities Gardies and the university gave them. “Word just spread about this party in Gisborne, and we were able to bring people from Southland through to Nelson and Aucklanders and Taranaki people, all over to Gisborne to get behind this event, and that’s how we were able to grow those initial years.”
The first year of the festival saw just under 2000 punters attend and was anticipated to be a one-off summer project, but after pulling it off, the then 21-year-old co-founders sat on the iconic hill welcoming in a new year and Pinkham confesses. “We had some pretty lofty ambitions from that point.”
Whether it was the magic from The Gardies, the trio’s commitment to the cause or their undoubted right place, right time fate, by the third year, they knew they had “captured the imagination of the country” — especially after signing the hottest headline act of 2005.
“We had Fat Freddy’s Drop,” The entrepreneur says with a grin. The band had just released their debut album and cleaned up at the New Zealand Music Awards, “Everyone wanted to see them and we had them booked for New Year’s Eve, so we were able to sell 10,000 tickets.”
Pinkham — who is in charge of the musical bookings and creative decisions — knew how good of a get the band was, but the enormity of the booking wasn’t obvious until tickets went on sale, “There were queues around the block to buy tickets,” he says, and it wasn’t just everyday punters looking to get in on the fun. The All Blacks were there including Dan Carter and birthday boy Richie McCaw, as well as the Outrageous Fortune cast who were at the peak of their fame.
“That’s when we were kind of on the map and the festival just grew from there. I think we went to 15,000 the next year, up to 18,000, up to 25,000. It was quite exponential from that third year.” he explains.
Instead of easing into the security of having a successful festival, Pinkham, Gibson, and Witters continued to hustle. They were inspired by the likes of Coachella and Glastonbury, deciding to ambitiously take on a Kiwi first by introducing a three-day festival. In the beginning, no one was sure they would be able to do it but the punters got behind them and Rhythm and Vines sold out with a record capacity of 25,000 festival goers.
As well as Aotearoa’s most popular artists, the Gisbourne-based festival welcomed huge names such as Calvin Harris, Pharell, and N.E.R.D but there was one bucket list name the founding trio desperately wanted on their stage, Sir Dave Dobbyn.
“He was a hero of ours when we started the festival. We used to listen to him on the Gardies jukebox down in Dunedin and when we started the festival, the theory was if we got a hundred bucks off all our mates, we could approach Dave Dobbyn to perform,” Pinkham says with a slight smirk. Safe to say, they got their wish and in 2015, the Kiwi icon made his R&V debut — unfortunately, it wasn’t the fairytale the trio had dreamed up.
“He was on a bit early in the day and it didn’t quite hit the mark,” Pinkham disappointingly confesses. Thankfully, five years later Dobbyn returned for the festival’s 2020 show hitting the “sweet spot” and promoting his highly anticipated 2022 sundown session, “He’s become a bit of an institution on that New Year’s Eve,” Pinkham admits.
Speaking of institutions, the festival itself has somewhat become one for New Zealand. Solidifying itself as a rite of passage for music lovers young and old, its success can perhaps be credited to the immense amount of planning involved to make sure everyone has a good but most importantly, safe experience.
“We’re really big on standards and best practice so that’s probably one thing I’ve held in really high regard in my career,” the co-founder explains. Unfortunately, he admits “nothing in events is ever certain” and even a well-managed festival such as Rhythm and Vines has experienced multiple unplanned situations. In 2017, RnV made headlines after a woman wearing body paint was grabbed at the festival. In 2020, the festival navigated the “summer of cathinones” where many festival-goers unknowingly consumed bath salts.
Most devastating of all, 19-year-old Fletcher Wong was found dead days after leaving the popular festival at the end of 2020. Rhythm and Vines organisers worked closely with authorities and like the rest of the country, were rocked by the teen’s death.
Pinkham says they’ve learnt from these heartbreaking situations and insists his team is committed to making the festival a safe experience for punters. As well as bringing on industry experts to help mitigate as many risks as they can, the festival has generously donated a portion of its ticket sales to Lifeline to ensure both festival goers and everyday Kiwis have the option to receive help whenever they need it.
This year, Pinkham says they are also working closely with the New Zealand Drug Foundation and will offer testing across the three-day event running December 29 to 31.
“We’ve got a policy for punters to bring their drugs to be checked and it gives us a gauge on what’s being brought into the festival,” he says adding, “The safety and security of our punters is paramount and we want to continue to support this initiative [drug testing services] because we think it’s a new frontier but it is prevalent in our industry and we need to address it.”
As well as ensuring a safe environment for their punters, Pinkham says the festival is focusing on giving festival-goers “the time of their lives each year” and will do so with a massive lineup including Becky Hill, Dom Dolla, Wilkinson and many more.
“There’s a new batch of young Kiwis coming through every summer that want that escapism and want that hedonism. And look, it’s just a great recipe. As long as we can keep it on track and deliver the best peaceful experience, there’s no reason it won’t continue into the future.”
As for whether Pinkham himself will be there for the next 21 years, he chuckles, “I’ll always keep flying the Rhythm and Vines flag.”
What: Rhythm and Vines
Where: Gisborne.
When: December 29 - 31.
Tickets: Available here.
All ticket-holders must be 18-plus.
Lillie Rohan is an Auckland-based reporter covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2020. She specialises in all things relationships and dating, great Taylor Swift ticket wars and TV shows you simply cannot miss out on.
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