About 25,000 revellers gathered at Mystery Creek for the Parachute Christian music festival. Photo / Supplied
Organisers of the Parachute Christian festival are disappointed 30 tents were stolen from campers on Saturday night. Three teenagers have since been arrested.
About 25,000 revellers are at the three-day festival which kicked off on Friday at Waikato's Mystery Creek, near Hamilton.
Event manager David Curtis said the crowd had
been generally well behaved but he was saddened by the tent thefts.
"It was quite disappointing for us that that happened ... But also, I think it's quite important to understand the people who were arrested were not actually festival attendees.
"They'd actually hopped the fence on one of the perimeters of the site in the late afternoon to take the tents."
Senior Sergeant Gordon Grantham said 15 burglary complaints had been received but he expected more theft victims to come forward.
"We had 34 burglaries reported at the Parachute [festival] last year and it looks as though there will be a similar number this year.
"That's why we are so keen to get some simple crime prevention advice out to people attending these kinds of festival events," Mr Grantham said.
Mr Curtis said most of the campers' tents survived the severe rain and wind on Friday night and only 60 people needed to move inside a secure venue.
"[On Saturday] we had a bit of wind, which was a bit exciting at times because it actually blew out the side of our main stage but didn't slow down our programme, so that was good."
He said the crowd was yesterday preparing for the biggest night of the festival.
"We have a big night, with Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin speaking.
"The Parachute Band are releasing their new album, so we're looking forward to a really big night on the main stage.
"So far everyone's having a really, really good time. It's going very well."
