The dismal holiday weather hasn't been kind to some businesses - but others can't stop smiling. Michael Dickison reports on the winners and losers of our damp start to summer

Photos from Rhythm and Vines 2011, an annual three-day music festival held at Waiohika Estate Vineyard in Gisborne.

The summer tour dates just keep on coming, and local lads The Datsuns are getting on board with a trip round the country, starting at the Waihi Beach Hotel on January 18.

The distinctive Senegalese voice of Baaba Maal has been added to the line up for Womad in March.

An intimate, relaxed affair set in the atmospheric surroundings of the Unesco World Heritage-listed Galle Fort.

Auckland could well do with more food-and-wine festivals, urges Don Kavanagh.

Rounding out the announcements for next year's Splore festival is the addition of powerful Texan neo-soul diva Erykah Badu.

With the tagline "Here for a good time, not a long time", you might think the annual Show Me Shorts festival aims to shock or entertain rather than delve too deeply into sophisticated stories.

Rotorua's Raggamuffin 2012 festival has expanded - and has got quite a bit deeper, in a bass frequency sense - with the addition of three more international artists to its line-up.

So what the hell am I supposed to do now? This might sound sad, but the end of the Rugby World Cup has left a gaping void in my life.

A third veteran act has been added to the double-header of Dragon and Hello Sailor at the Powerstation on November 4.

Keeping their fingers crossed for resource consent (c'mon Super City Council), the organisers of the annual Auckland Anniversary Day St Jerome's Laneway Festival have announced the details for next year's shindig on Monday January 30.

The party long billed as the world's only dry Oktoberfest is finally going wet.

A new local music festival might be going head-to-head with the Big Day Out but it has a very different target market.

Picturesque Maribor is Slovenia's second largest city, and sits at the heart of a centuries-old wine region.

In summer, Japan drops its reserve to party, finds Rob McFarland.

Josie McNaught gives a local's guide to Venice, where New Zealand art is on display at the world’s greatest exhibition.

New Zealand feature film The Orator (O Le Tulafale) has been selected to premiere in competition in the Orizzonti (New Horizons) section of the 68th Venice International Film Festival.

A weekend in Hawkes Bay was timed well for the food and wine festival, writes Catherine Smith.

More than 170,000 people turned up at this year's Glastonbury Music Festival to see hundreds of acts including BB King, U2 and Wu-Tang Clan.