Our most diverse festival line-up is ... Meatstock?!

A festival full of beards, blokes, beef and beers has put careful consideration into its musical choices. Why can't others do the same?

Jay Beaumont has just microwaved his lunch.

“Don’t tell anyone,” he says sheepishly. “I'm trying to lose some weight using those horrible calorie-controlled meals.”

That was not the answer I was expecting.

I’d called Beaumont to ask him about Meatstock, his Australasian festival that’s become a mega-popular pilgrimage for those hankering for a smoky medley of beef, blokes, beers, beards and bands.

Beaumont launched his unique festival for “meatheads” in Australia in 2016, expanded to New Zealand in 2017, and it took off, regularly attracting crowds of upu to 12,000 at events in Sydney, Toowomba, Bendigo and Auckland.

This year, it moves to Hamilton’s Mystery Creek Event Centre for the weekend of February 24-25 and expands to offer camping options.

All 10,000 tickets are very nearly sold out. “I would say, based on current trajectory, by February 5 or 6, we'll be totally sold out out of tickets,” says Beaumont.

That’s a lot of beef, but, surprisingly, not as many blokes as I thought.

“The gender split would be 60% men, 40% women,” says Beaumont. “Women buy tickets [for the blokes].”

A Meatstock festival punter tucks in.

Despite its singular focus, the festival’s founder says Meatstock is a day out the whole family can enjoy.

“It’s a sensory overload,” he says. “There's a butchery competition. There's a barbecue competition. There's a grilling competition. We have strongman competitions. There's a beard and mustache competition ... There's a medieval village with axe-throwing.”

While you’re doing all that, you can also eat as much barbecued brisket and ribs – cooked “low and slow” just like they do in America’s southern states – while you’re there.

Beaumont started his festival after falling in love with that style of cooking on a trip to the US 15 years ago. “It’s a phenomenon in Australia … and it’s taken off in New Zealand just as much,” he says.

So I expected Beaumont to live up to his brand. Asking him what was for lunch felt like a simple icebreaker. I expected his answer to be some kind of slow-cooked meat, perhaps a grilled T-bone or some seared beef ribs.

I wasn’t expecting it to be a calorie-counted microwaved meal.

“We do, on the occasion, get the barbecues all fired up and make some barbecue,” laughs Beaumont. “But it's not an every day thing, that's for sure.”

He’s trying to lose weight because barbecue festival season is fast approaching.

At Hamilton’s Meatstock, the first since Covid paused Beaumont’s festival for three years, you’ll be able to eat low and slow brisket for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.

“This is not carnival food. This is not the sort of food you get if you go see a concert,” says Beaumont. “This is good, proper, real barbecue.”

Up to 10,000 people will be paying $68.50 for access to things like this:

And this:

And, er, this:

You get the vibe.

Along with all that meat, Meatstock has booked some artists to play.

That’s the real reason I’ve called Beaumont.

I’ve been covering New Zealand’s packed festival landscape in this newsletter, with a summer so stacked more than 100 separate festival events are being held between November and March. (I really did count them all).

But all things are not equal on those festival line-ups.

Some of those bills look a little one-sided:

When I called Maggie Shiu, a London-based journalist who has written extensively about this problem, she told me she was incredibly disappointed.

She said festival diversity seemed to be getting worse, not better.

Back in November, she told me this: “The onus is on people who have that decision-making power to try a little bit harder to find [female artists] and book them.”

Meatstock could easily have added to this problem.

No one is looking at a festival like Beaumont’s and asking it to lead the way when it comes to the promotion of inclusion, and gender and genre diversity.

But it kind of is.

Meatstock’s musical line-up has had real thought put into it.

It’s been carefully curated.

It’s got balance.

There are different artists from different genres.

There’s a decent gender split.

When I compiled my summer festival list, Meatstock stood out.

The vibes on this one, compared to many others, are excellent.

Was it that hard to do?

No, says Beaumont.

He and his team sat down, made a list of artists they thought their audience would enjoy, and went out and booked them.

It really was that simple.

“We want everyone to feel welcome. If you like country, we've got something for you. If you like rock, we've got something for you. If you like a bit of reggae, we've got something for you too,” he says.

“We want to create that laid-back friendly kind of vibe where families are welcome … that’s where we’re going with it.”

They just thought about it, and did it.

Why can’t more do the same?

When I asked Beaumont this, he struggled to understand the question. To him, crafting a line-up that appeals to as many people as possible is an obvious decision to make, something a promoter should be striving for.

“When we created Meatstock, it was like, ‘How do we create an event where it's a whole day of entertainment? Where you could come at 11am or 10pm and you have plenty to see and do?”

But he does admit his festival sometimes runs into a different problem, an issue that only a festival called “Meatstock” would have to deal with.

Sometimes, their chosen band doesn’t want to join in the meaty fun.

“You get your heart set on a band … that [says], ‘Hey, look, this is a barbecue festival and it’s not really for us because two of our band members are vegan.’”

Meatstock, Mystery Creek Events Centre, February 24-25

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