Juicy Fest 2024: North Harbour Stadium announced as most northerly venue

Juicy Fest was hugely popular in Whangārei earlier this year. Photo / Tania Whyte

Juicy Fest 2024 organisers are hoping the newly announced Auckland venue may placate disappointment at the festival’s decision to drop its Northland venue.

North Harbour Stadium on the North Shore is the most northerly point the hip-hop and R&B music festival will traverse, a decision organiser Glenn Meikle said was made with Northlanders in mind.

In January, the Northland Events Centre in Whangārei brimmed with roughly 8000 festival-goers keen to catch the lineup of Grammy award-winning artists that included Ne-Yo, Nelly and Mýa, plus crowd favourite Twista.

American rapper and record producer Twista was one of the acts at Juicy Fest in Whangārei in January.

This year the sounds of rappers T-Pain and The Game, and Grammy-winning US singer Ashanti, will stay south of Northland’s border despite constant pleas for the festival to return to the region.

“We have never said we won’t return to Whangārei,” Meikle said. “We love Northland and would love to come back there one day.”

Organisers were “thrilled” to bring a lineup of high-calibre international artists to Whangārei this year.

“All of the artists on our lineup enjoyed the energy from the Northland crowd, which was a great way to finish the New Zealand leg of the Juicy Fest tour.”

But the decision to move Juicy Fest to more centralised locations provided all New Zealanders with the fairest chance to experience the festival, he said.

“Although Northland is not included in the 2024 tour, we’ve tried to ensure its closest location is as accessible as possible for Northland residents.”

The thought process behind venue locations for the festival’s debut was to ensure it was widely accessible. Meikle said that remained a goal of organisers.

He pointed out that, for South Island fans, Palmerston North was the closest they could get to Juicy Fest 2023. That was why Christchurch had been added to the list of host cities for next year.

And while Meikle acknowledged the North Shore wasn’t the same as “home turf”, organisers hoped the location north of the harbour bridge made it “a little easier” for Northlanders to make the trip south.

“We would love to add more New Zealand shows to the tour but logistically that’s not possible at this time. However, that’s not to say we can’t include more locations in future festivals.”

Juicy Fest organisers were “always keen” to hear people’s input on where the festival should be held, he said.

“[...] We will continue to make changes each year that we feel will improve the festival experience for attendees.

“If people think we should add a new location to future tours, definitely let us know – we’ll always take feedback, ticket sales and support into account for all locations.”

Juicy Fest 2024 will be held at North Harbour Stadium on January 6. Tickets are already on sale and available from www.juicyfest.co/