Welcome to Nowhere Festival returns to Whanganui region for Waitangi weekend 2021

The Welcome to Nowhere Festival is returning to the region this summer over Waitangi Day weekend.

As of yet, the location has only been confirmed as "somewhere near Whanganui".

"We tend to get a lot of smaller, touring New Zealand bands from all around the country, as well as local acts from the Whanganui area as well," co-ordinator Ben Jones, from Eyegum Music Collective, said.

"Over the years we've had artists like Miss June, Anthonie Tonnon, Earth Tongue, and a lot of other upcoming artists who have gone on to do great things."

There would be 30 musical acts performing over the weekend, Jones said, and 30 poets, comedians and visual artists.

"That's kind of a point of difference for us to not just focus on the music, even though that's a major part of it, it's trying to have a broad range of things on offer.

"We've added different things over the years and that's helped us grow.

"The capacity for next year will be around 600 people, so it's still pretty intimate."

Welcome to Nowhere was an "all-ages affair", Jones said, with "20 and 30-somethings" mixing with younger families from the Whanganui area.

"The last two years we've held the festival on the second weekend of January because there wasn't much on around that time, but thankfully the next two will fall on Waitangi weekend, so people won't have to take any days off work and it'll be a bit more relaxed.

"There's normally one main stage, and a couple of other performance spaces.

"We have a watering hole behind the stage as well and we often have the poets reading from a cliff overlooking it."

The festival would be introducing a second stage in 2021, Jones said, meaning more acts could play.

"One of our key things is not having any acts playing at the same time, and even with the two stages it'll be a staggered set-up, with no clashes.

"We are a volunteer organisation, but we have a great team and we're pretty confident that next year will be the biggest and best one yet."

Jones said the event's location would be revealed closer to the actual date, because of limited capacity and the threat of potential overcrowding.

"The site itself is a manageable size for us, and we're really lucky to be able to host the festival there.

"It's a really beautiful, special place."

• For more information on Welcome to Nowhere Festival 2021, visit www.eyegum.co.nz