Andrew Tuck: Homegrown festival director on the festival leaving Wellington after 18 years

Wellington's Homegrown festival is set to move further afield - with organisers claiming it's outgrown the capital.

The music festival's been operating at the region's waterfront for 18 years, but it's been revealed this year's upcoming two-day event will be the last held in Wellington before it moves in 2026.

Festival director Andrew Tuck says they've been looking to expand Homegrown out further - and there's nowhere else in Wellington that can accommodate demand.

"We looked everywhere to see if we could accommodate inside Wellington, we've been looking at that for the last couple of years. And unfortunately, there's nowhere where we could actually move the people in a comfortable fashion that'll actually tick all the boxes." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now talking of growth to eighteen years in the Capitol,
Jim Beams Homegrown Festival is moving cities. In twenty twenty six,
organizers say now the event has grown to two big
twenty five thousand punters. Now Wellington's waterfront location has become
too small. Home Grown Festival director Andrew Tech joins me.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Now, Hello Andrew, Hello Andrew, how are you today?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Very good? But it's leaving Wellington. You couldn't find anywhere
else hot wreck, full, hot wreck, busy, brew town.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
We looked everywhere to see if we could accommodate inside Wellington.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Have been looking at that for the last couple of years.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
And unfortunately there is no where we can actually move
the people in a comfortable fashion that'll actually tick all
the boxes and make sure that they are happy.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
First and foremost.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
You've got twenty five thousand punters, how many do you want?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
It's also much about the number of people.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
It's about what else we can showcase, and New Zealand's
got a lot, a lot of changes. If we look
back to two thousand and eight, we attend thousand people
and three stages, and we've now grown to five stages
and twenty five thousand people. So it's about those genres
that are coming through in these variety of different ones
that really should be showcased, and we just don't have

(01:12):
the space there to put them on that stage and
show them to people that they want to see them.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
But it's a lovely stage and Sheehard is going to
be playing this year and that's going to be awesome.
But that city to city to see bridge is a problem,
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
I mean there's lots of little little bits and pieces
that are changing in the Wellington region and we just
want to make sure that the artists have the best
platform possible see that the audience that attends.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I haven't decided that yet, Andrew.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
We've narrowed down to about three or four spots and
we're still doing Digildens on all of those. Have an
announcement by the middle to the end of April. We
should have an announcement through Very Good.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
What are the three or four spots you've considered.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Oh, I'm not going to share that with you. We'd
like to make that a little surprise because.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I heard the speculation this morning when people talked about it,
and everyone was talking about Hamilton and all sorts of things.
Ryan Bridge on the on the Breakfast Show, and I
thought to myself, I'm thinking Western Springs, out a field,
bigger town, a replacement for the ugand Cea Limits Festival.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
And that's that's the joy of it.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
There will be lots of speculation and stuff, but we
want to make sure that when we do announced, we
do it in the right fashion and make sure our
artists and everything are in formed first.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
You know what I thought. When you've done that, we'll
definitely You know what I.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Thought when you chuckled as Dickens you've.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Nouded no, no, you haven't quite known it, but but
I applaud the effort.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
So thank you. So Aucland is looking probable because of
increased population and facilities.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
It's it's again, it's all all option to being considered
across the North and South Lands. So we will once
we find the city that we think it can grow
for the next eighty years, like we've done eighteen now.
Originally when we started, they said we'd only last two
years because New zealing music wasn't wasn't strong enough. After
eighteen years we've showed that New Zealand music is outstanding.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
I am from the radio generation that actually in the
old day used to not play New Zealand music because
it was New Zealand music, and there were huge debates
that we had quotas, and then slowly that broke down,
and then New Zealand artists took on the world and
then we've got like what I say, she had playing
a twelve thousand seed arena on its farewell tour and
we've got bands filling it all up. This is a
sign that New Zealand music is very healthy.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
It's a fantastic sign and for us, we want to
make sure that the generations to come continue to see that.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
So we want to go another eighteen years.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
And to do that, we've obviously got to make changes
and make sure that we do them in the fashion
that will give their long givity and make it even
more iconic.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
It's a great little festival. Andrew, congratulations, well done, and
thank you for everything. And I'll see at Western Springs.
It is four fifteen.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
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