City’s biggest music fest back with a bang
Music festival Electric Avenue returns to Christchurch today, hoping to build on from the 30,000-strong crowd it attracted last year.
Punters will pack out Hagley Park from 11am to catch headliners the Chemical Brothers, who will be playing their first New Zealand show in more than a decade.
Dunedin ensemble Six60 will also perform, in what will be drummer Eli Paewai’s final show with the band co-founded.
In this latest rendition of Electric Avenue, the event has opted to ditch the RFID wristbands which had caused hiccups last year, used for cashless spending and to track foot traffic within an event.
The event is still cashless, so eftpos cards are needed.
Crowds should pack their sunscreen and remember to stay hydrated with the festival’s water stations, as Christchurch is expected to hit 29C.
Electric Avenue will close its doors at 5pm to any new entrants, before the event finishes at 10pm.
Organisers recommend public transport, cycling, or hired e-scooters to be used to attend the festival.
The festival’s VIP tickets have completely sold-out, while some final release tickets remain.
If you have bought a second-hand ticket, the name on the ticket must match your ID.
Electric Avenue 2024 lineup
The Chemical Brothers, Six60, Hybrid Minds, L.A.B, Shapeshifter, Synthony, Lime Cordiale, Flight Facilities, Lee Mvtthews, Cosmos Midnight, JessB, Shockone, Greentea Peng, Opiuo, The Rions, Kc Lights, Lady Shaka, Rei, Cassie Henderson, Fleetmac Wood, Luca George, Dick Johnson, Frank Booker, Kedu Carlo, 1 Drop Nation, Ashy, Beacon Bloom, Sanoi, Jack Page, Goose, Corban Tupou, and Patella.
Community drug-testing
Know Your Stuff volunteers will conduct drug-checking and other services for festival goers.
A large police and security presence will also be on site.
Senior Sergeant Roy Appley, community services manager Christchurch, said: “Police want people to have fun at Electric Avenue festival at Christchurch’s Hagley Park this weekend, but they want people to stay safe too . ... If you have any concerns about your own or someone else’s wellbeing, talk to us.”
Apple products have been a passion of Devin Davies since he was a child – but never in his wildest dreams did he think the global tech giant would contact him. Davies works at Smudge in Christchurch as an app developer, while also creating apps in his spare time for his house and family.
In 2019 he launched Crouton, an app allowing users to store their favourite online recipes in one place on their device.
Its usage was ticking along for years until Crouton featured as the US Apple Store’s App of the Day last year.
It wasn’t a complete shock to Davies, but it was a nice surprise.
Apple had approached Davies about being App of the Day previously, but he said it only meant Crouton was going on a list, not that it would definitely be featured – so it became a waiting game.
The tech company doesn’t let app developers know when or if they’ll feature, Davies said, so he just had to “wait, and hope someone else spotted it”.
He kept a close eye on things, and when he saw Crouton spotlighted, he ticked off one of his goals. “I’ve been following Apple stuff since I was kid; seeing something you’ve built yourself turn up on something you look at every day is pretty amazing. It was part of a bucket list thing for sure,” he said.
The honour increased eyes on his app by 300% to 400%, he said, “not insignificant”.
His invention was the mother of necessity, as the saying goes.
Being the main cook in his family, he enjoyed meticulously planning weekly meals and saving online recipes in the Apple Notes app.
“After a while, the notes got a bit out of hand and I was like, I guess I could make an app that makes this a bit easier.”
It’s an approach he often takes around the home. When his children were young, he created a sleep tracker app called Ticktot. He has also created BoFlo, an app that allo
ws his 4-year-old to say a word and the app generates a dotted version of it to trace to help teach writing. Both apps are available to the public.
In keeping with Davies’ needs, Crouton has several handy tools alongside the ability to save recipes, including multiple timers, measurement conversion, recipe scaling and a meal planner.
“I still use it every week.”
The phone app could be part of the future of cooking with Apple Vision Pro’s augmented reality goggles.
At this stage the concept is more “experimental”, but in five or 10 years once the goggles are “much smaller”, they can be worn around the home in a more practical sense.
Those using the goggles in conjunction with Crouton can shift timers around the room with their hands, placing them where they’re most helpful, “so maybe a pot on the stove”.
The goggles can also project examples of different size pans, particularly helpful for bakers who need to use a specific size.
It was part of a bucket list thing for sure.” Devin Davies