The return of Homegrown: Crowds of thousands to flock into Wellington for festival

Homegrown festival on the Wellington waterfront. Photo / Supplied

Thousands of people will flock into Wellington on Saturday as Homegrown takes over the city.

Wellington’s waterfront has been transformed for the return of the festival, which is focused on New Zealand talent and has been running since 2008.

Andrew Tuck, the event director, told NZME the event is almost sold out, with just a couple of hundred tickets left.

“We’ve only got 200 to go until 24,000 people are on the Wellington waterfront and that’s a testament to the quality of music we have in New Zealand.”

He said he is “absolutely stoked” to have the festival back after Covid-19 disruptions.

“This time last year we were sitting in our offices beaten and sad so to be back on the waterfront back in Wellington, is amazing.”

The event on Saturday will see 45 of Aotearoa’s biggest acts taking to the various stages along the waterfront including Kora, Drax Project, Shapeshifter and the Feelers.

Hamish Gee, the drummer for the Feelers, told NZME he is thrilled to be performing.

“It’s the thing we look forward to the most on the musical calendar – we’ve been playing there for about 13 years – we’ve done all but one of them.”

Gee said he can’t wait to get up and play for a live audience again.

“Just before Covid came along we had been going a lot of shows and didn’t realise until the C-word how important it is for us to play in front of people, we’ve been cooped up in the studio recording which is great but it’s really good to be out in front of people performing.”

As for acts he was looking forward to, Gee said he was pumped as always to see an old favourite Shihad – but was excited to see some new up-and-comers as well.

“This will be huge for some of the younger, newer bands to get to play in front of so many people.”

Wellington City Council will put traffic management in place for the event during the evening - and although access to the Wellington Waterfront will be available to the general public some areas will be restricted solely for contractors and/or ticket holders.

Waitangi Park will be restricted until Thursday 23, as will Frank Kitts Park. The usual Sunday market will be moved to the Reading car park area (access via Tory and Wakefield Streets) on Sunday 19 March.

Both Reading car parks will be used for the market so there’ll be no parking available there.