Grapes of wrath: Rhythm & Vines calming creditors
NEW ZEALAND’S biggest multiday music festival, Rhythm & Vines, has bounced back from the financial abyss to return with a leaner offering in 2015.
The New Year festival has struggled to pay creditors, and founder Hamish Pinkham said it took a major hit after experiencing poor ticket sales. Just 18,000 of an expected 30,000 tickets were sold in 2014.
Organisers have slashed the cost of a three-day ticket plus camping from $429 to about $230, and plan to expand their VIP and ‘‘glamping’’ options to attract festivalgoers keen on creature comforts.
Devised by a group of Otago University mates for their summer holiday, Rhythm & Vines has become a mainstay of the summer calendar for tens of thousands of young Kiwis, attracting acts such as Calvin Harris and US performer Pharrell Williams.
Pinkham said it was only after an injection of private equity funding that the festival had staved off collapse. Organisers were working with creditors, some of whom were angered at the situation, but had been assured all would be paid over the next six weeks.
Pinkham said they’d been forced to tighten their belts, slashing 30 per cent from the running costs and cutting staff from eight to two fulltime staff – he and chief executive Kieran Spillane.
Spillane said the company had been close to collapse.
‘‘It came a bit closer than many of us would have liked. But we have a huge amount of confidence that we can right the ship. The thing with the music industry is it is cyclical.’’
Some creditors were unhappy, ‘‘ but that’s the nature of business, the nature of life, the vast majority have been supportive and understanding’’, Spillane said. ‘‘ It’s been a tough few months but we’re really excited, we’ve completely restructured the business, we have refinancing in place to enable us to carry on and our future is a hell of a lot brighter now.’’
The organisers said the cost of going to the festival had hit $1000 for the three or four-day road trip. ‘‘The kids were looking at it going ‘it’s going to cost $1000’.’’
The restructuring had seen the Rhythm & Vines split from the Rhythm and Alps festival, an associated event based in Central Otago that had been luring numbers away from Rhythm & Vines.
‘‘Yeah, I think there was some crossover,’’ Pinkham said. ‘‘We set that up to take some magic down to the South Island. But maybe it was preventing that South Island crowd from travelling up to Gisborne.’’
Riots at the BW Camping ground, an independently run site, at the last Rhythm & Vines festival forced organisers to rethink their liquor licensing.
Spillane said they were working out a compromise with police and hoped to allow BYO alcohol into camping areas again this year.
Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon said liquor licensing issues were being sorted out with Gisborne police and the clampdown on rioters had sent a tough message to anyone planning to ‘‘play up’’.
Foon, who lists Public Enemy as his favourite act, has been to every festival bar one, and believes the event brings a huge vibrancy to the region.
‘‘ Twenty thousand people as opposed to 35,000 is still a good number. They’ve found their niche and we will support them as much as possible.’’
It would be a huge economic loss if the festival didn’t go ahead, he said.
Now in its 13th year, R&V has enticed around 250,000 hedonistic young revellers to party among the vines in what is one of the first places to see the sun on New Year’s Day.
Pinkham said: ‘‘We did have a fantastic run but it’s hard to maintain that momentum getting the right bands year in, year out. But I do think the product gets better and better each year. I do think the magic is there.
‘‘It’s been challenging these past couple of months as business owners and entrepreneurs to go through this process. I think it’s been all hands on deck. We’ve had to tighten up our screws internally. Contracts have finished earlier than expected.’’
They hope to make more use of the Waiohika Estate vineyard setting, owned by the family of Hamish’s former flatmate Andrew Witters.
Festivals in New Zealand have faced tough times in recent years.
The Big Day Out has hit a rocky patch, bouncing back from 2013’s cancellation by moving successfully to a new venue at Auckland’s Western Springs in 2014, only to experience another hiatus this year. It is unclear whether it will go ahead in 2016.
The Christian music Parachute Festival, which had run for more than 20 years, has been abandoned, with organisers saying it is no longer financially viable. Rhythm & Vines tickets will go on sale on May 28. The lineup will be revealed in
August.
We did have a fantastic run but it’s hard to maintain that momentum getting the right bands year in, year out. Hamish Pinkham Rhythm & Vines organiser