Is Hamilton ready for a supersized Homegrown?

Andrew Tuck was told his all-Kiwi festival would only last two years. Homegrown turns 19 this Saturday – and it’s bigger than ever.

Kia ora! This Saturday, Homegrown will unveil its new festival in Hamilton on a site three times the size of the old one on Wellington’s waterfront. Who’s going? How will it work? And why Hamilton? I asked founder Andrew Tuck all of those questions and more, and his answers are below. First, here are all the headlines you need to know…

• If you fancy three weeks in Sydney, May and June could be a great time to go. That’s because the music and culture festival Vivid has confirmed an absolutely stonking line-up of artists: Mitski, Salem, Jeff Mills, Flying Lotus, Kae Tempest, Mogwai, Erika de Casier and Earl Sweatshirt & MIKE (in the Sydney Opera House?!?) are just some of the acts booked to play. The full line-up is here.

• But don’t book your plane tickets and accommodation just yet – some of those acts will make the trip across the Tasman. That’s thanks to the Strange Universe Winter 2026 line-up which includes some Vivid acts among many others. It’s a solid winter festival all of our own with Dry Cleaning, Cate Le Bon, Stereolab and The Veils, with others still to be announced. Under the Radar has more, plus ticket details.

• Despite the anti-semitic rants, ‘Heil Hitler’, the mansion gutting, and the nude suits, people are still keen to see Kanye West perform live. The controversial and apparently sorry rapper has booked his first US performance in five years at California’s SoFi Stadium on April 3, and more than one million people want tickets, reports Complex. In other news, Marilyn Manson is happily on tour for much of this year, and all of Louis CK’s world tour is sold out.

• How do you feel about audio-only seats at concerts? Harry Styles is among the first to offer this to fans, giving away tickets to seats directly behind a giant black curtain at the back of his stage at his Manchester show. Those tickets were free, but had zero view. If this becomes the norm and they start charging top dollar for them, hold me back. (The whole concert is on Netflix now, thankfully it’s not just a blank screen.)

‘It’s by Kiwis, with Kiwis, for Kiwis.’

It was running out of space. It was bursting at the seams. If they attempted to bolt on anything new at all, it would ruin something somewhere else, the music festival equivalent of the butterfly effect. “We’d fight for every inch we could,” says Andrew Tuck. “We’d put scaffolding over seating or over gardens just to try to get a bigger footprint.” Crowds got too big, and the space got too small. “After 18 years, we got to a point where anything we changed was going to be detrimental to the event.”

He’s talking about Homegrown, Tuck’s all-conquering Aotearoa festival that spent 18 years entertaining the masses in a late-summer one-day blast on Wellington’s waterfront. It kept biggering and biggering, enticing crowds of up to 23,000 until dramatically pulling the plug at the end of last year’s event. It was a shock to many – but not Tuck, who had been thinking about making a move for years. “We tried for two years to find another spot,” he says. “It got to the point that there was nowhere [in Wellington] that could hold us.”

So, this Saturday, Tuck unveils his new site when he opens the gates at Claudelands Arena just after midday. The move means Hamilton gets its biggest music festival since Parachute called things off in 2014. Fans walking in will instantly notice some major changes: the site is three times the size of Wellington’s waterfront, and stage numbers have increased from five to seven. “The VIP area is two-and-a-half times the size of the old one,” says Tuck. “Everything’s bigger. The whole thing is different … it looks like it’s on steroids.”

It’s a far cry from the early days. When Homegrown kicked off in 2008, Tuck was told his three-stage event featuring only Aotearoa artists would last just two years. Back then, there wasn’t as much confidence in local music. Lorde was yet to become Lorde, and Six60 were not headlining stadiums. “They didn’t think New Zealand music was strong enough back in 2008,” he says about his critics. “People knew about it, they loved it, but it wasn’t as high up in the threshold … a lot of people thought we were mad.”

Shihad perform at Homegrown 20025. Photo: Supplied.

Tuck has proved them wrong time and again. Up to 30,000 people are expected to descend on Homegrown this Saturday for a line-up that’s as good as it has ever been. Six60 and L.A.B lead the charge, with Blindspott, Head Like a Hole and Villainy for the rockers, Supergroove, Dragon and Hello Sailor for the nostalgia, Fur Patrol, Stellar* and Ladi6 for the singalongs and P-Money, David Dallas and DJ Sir-Vere for all you hip-hop fans. “No matter if you’re 18, like my daughter, or 70, like my dad, there’s something there for you,” says Tuck, who will enjoy a much shorter commute now he’s moved the festival to his hometown.

It isn’t lost on him that Homegrown is among the anomalies in a festival scene often dominated by bad news. Tuck says he gets the basics right, keeping ticket prices low and making sure everyone gets paid on time. He remains staunchly independent. Like everyone else, though, the last five years haven’t always been easy. “It’s a risky business. I could lose my house tomorrow … I’m still driving a 2002 ute,” he says. Tuck’s put his home on the line too many times to count, but believes all that stress is worth it once fans start coming through the gates ready to party. “It’s by Kiwis with Kiwis for Kiwis. I think that’s pretty cool.”

Homegrown kicks off at Claudelands Oval from midday; tickets are here.

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Bonus beat.