Homegrown festival has found its new home. Photo / Alexander Hallag
The countdown to Homegrown’s first event in Hamilton is on, with less than two weeks to go.
The organisers have been working hard setting up the seven stages at Claudelands Oval, with 220 truckloads of equipment having come in since the end of February.
Homegrown chief executive and managing director Andrew Tuck said he was super hyped.
“This event is gonna be off the chains. [It’s] gonna be nuts,” he told the Waikato Herald.
“After 27 years of events, this is probably one of the best ones we’ve put together.”
There are plenty of new things at Homegrown.
“What we’ve brought back [this year] is dance – breakdance, street dance,” Tuck said.
“When we first started Homegrown [in Wellington], we used to have breakdance ... [but] we ended up running out of space, so we had to stop doing it ... to fit in more music acts.”
Tuck said being able to bring it back was great as it added “a unique offering” to the festival.
“It’s another way of showcasing how cool New Zealand is.”
The other big new addition is the Nexus Stage, where six emerging artists will be showcased.
The artists were able to apply online, but had to fulfil a few criteria.
“They had to [already] be doing relatively well, but not well enough to play Homegrown,” Tuck said.
The other criteria were that artists needed to have more than 2026 monthly listeners, followers or streams, more than 2026 social followers, a press kit, a radio-ready single and the ability to perform a 45-minute set of original music.
“I [wanted] to get quite diverse across the genres,” Tuck said.
“We were looking for people that are ambitious, ... [whose] sound is really tight, or they might have a track that’s catchy.
“It’s those tracks that you were looking for that you go yeah, I can see ... this audience get behind this.”
In total, the team received 150 entries, but in the end, artists Altercation X Erin G, Cordian, Imani-J, PRINS, Verity, and Wet Denim stood out the most.
Auckland-based singer-songwriter, Erin G, and Queenstown-based DJ and producer Altercation have teamed up to dive into new sonic territory with their EP, Dream it Again, which captures Erin G’s intimate storytelling alongside Altercation’s soulful side of drum and bass.
Cordan is an alternative/progressive rock group from Auckland, consisting of Mike Raven (guitars/keys), Kris Raven (drums/percussion), Nick Raven (bass) and Dity Maharaj (vocals/artwork).
Imani-J, of Nelson, is a Haitian-New Zealand artist, crafting music that sits at the intersection of Afrofusion and R&B.
PRINS, of Auckland, is a New Zealand-born pop artist carving out a bold, international lane with sleek pop hooks, sharp visuals and a live show built for scale.
Verity, of Hamilton, is known for her deeply honest storytelling and blend of pop, soul and R&B.
Lastly, Wet Denim, of Wellington, are a four-piece rock-pop band whose sound is a blend of captivating vocals, lush guitar chords, syrupy basslines and hard-hitting drums.
They join the previously announced main line-up, including Six60, Devilskin, Blindspott, Hello Sailor, Supergroove, The Black Seeds, Savage, Coterie and Lee Mvtthews.
Another new thing for the first Hamilton Homegrown is the closure of Claudelands Bridge to create a pedestrian-only link to and from the CBD.
The bridge will be closed to vehicles from 6am on Saturday, March 14, until 3am on Sunday, March 15.
Pedestrian access is open from 10am on Saturday.
The closure was facilitated by Hamilton City Council, with its Destinations Group general manager Sean Murray saying it would help boost the local economy.
“By creating a pedestrian-only connection between the central city and Claudelands, we’re encouraging people to arrive earlier, stay longer and explore Hamilton before and after the festival.”
Tuck said the Nexus stage was only one of the ways that Homegrown was planning for the future of New Zealand’s event industry.
“Homegrown has always been a ground for fostering Kiwi talent, and this initiative strengthens that pathway.
“We’re not just booking artists for a set, we’re investing in the next chapter of New Zealand music.”
In addition to that, Tuck has invited emerging sound and lighting technicians, photography students and high school students to work at the event to give them an insight into running an event of this scale.
They would all work alongside seasoned professionals.
“It’s so they can ... experience this ... [and] help them figure out if this is something they see themselves doing, [because] there is not many ways you can introduce yourself into the industry.”
The decision to move Homegrown to Hamilton was not welcomed by all fans, though Tuck, a proud Waikato local, stands by his decision.
“If you are really true to New Zealand music, it doesn’t matter which city it’s in,” Tuck said.
In total, nine cities applied to host the festival, with Hamilton and Dunedin being the two finalists.
In the end, Hamilton won the tender, also because of the venue, Claudelands Oval.
“We had to find a city that could sustain us for another 18-20 years,” Tuck said.
“The area that they got out here is spectacular.
“The space that we’re using is about 100,000sq m, so it’s a very big space ... [giving us] the ability ... to chop and change things and mix things up over the years.
“[Otherwise you] keep doing the same thing year on year, which is where we fell into with Wellington ... because we’d used up every centimetre, anything we changed was gonna be detrimental to the event.
“Here, we managed to add two more stages ... and the ability for us to add another stage or another two stages is definitely on the cards.”
In Wellington, Homegrown had a space of 35,000sq m and a maximum of 25,000 attendees.
Due to the move to Hamilton, there is an increased capacity, with a maximum of 35,000 attendees this year, but the site will hold up to 60,000 people, Tuck said – a hint of what could be in years to come.
His message to the critics is a challenge.
“We’ll change your perception of what Hamilton is.
“That’s my goal, to have people go, ‘Hamilton is really cool’.
“Yes, we’ve probably done some things wrong over the past 30 years with how we’ve handled some events ... but it’s [about] how we do better now.
“No point in dwelling on what happened with the V8s or what happened with the [rugby] sevens.
“Hamilton has a lot to offer, we just haven’t shown the world enough.
“The more things we can bring here, the more we ... showcase that Hamilton is a cool city.
“Let’s be spectacular.”
Danielle Zollickhofer is the Waikato news director and a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.