Homegrown to pump $7.2m into Wellington
Wellington’s waterfront Homegrown music festival is expected to bring big money into the capital, with threequarters of fans coming from outside the region.
The waterfront music festival started in 2008 with 35 acts attracting a crowd of 14,000 – on Saturday, 45 acts over five stages will perform in front of a capacity crowd of 20,500.
The overall economic impact expected to be generated by the festival for Wellington was $7.2 million, said Warrick Dent, Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency partnership and events general manager.
It is the only urban waterfront music festival in the country featuring rock, dub/roots, reggae, electronic, pop and R’n’B music. Artists this year include Fat Freddy’s Drop, Devilskin and Dave Dobbyn.
While traditionally appealing to a younger fans aged between 18 and 24, there had been an incremental increase in the number of over-35s attending the event, Dent said.
The economic development agency had focused on helping supercharge Homegrown to become a vital cog in the city’s events calendar.
‘‘It adds colour and vibrancy to the city’s event offering at the start of autumn, a time when visitor numbers start to drop away from those experienced during the peak summer period. It also packs an economic punch.’’
This year, 77 per cent of tickets were bought outside the region, a figure Dent said had grown from 51 per cent in 2013, when an Angus & Associates survey revealed 72 per cent of Homegrown visitors from out of the area stayed in the area at least two nights.
Wellington nightclub owner Jordan Mills said having thousands of out-oftowners in the city for the event was a boon for the city’s bars, clubs and restaurants.
It was also a chance for the industry to recoup losses from Easter’s ‘‘behind the times’’ liquor licensing laws.
‘‘It’s just bringing a lot of people into the city, which obviously generates business for bars, restaurants and nightclubs,’’ Mills said.
Hospitality NZ Wellington regional manager Raewyn Tan said the association welcomed events, and Homegrown had been good for bars, clubs and restaurants in the past.
‘‘It creates excitement for the community and for the people – we love events, we just need more of them.’’
Earlier this month – amid reports of bad drugs masquerading as ecstasy/ MDMA doing the festival rounds – Homegrown organiser Andrew Tuck said a legal grey area limited his ability to offer any kind of drug testing on-site at this year’s festival.