The festival where everything is awesome.

It's impossible to see every act on this absolutely stacked line-up. But you can try.

Molten lava churns across backlit screens. Feedback roars out the speakers. Seven people crowd The Studio’s stage. On her left, the bassist attempts to break his instrument by stabbing it into the stage. On her right, the guitarist lays on his back, delivering searing riffs while launching his legs repeatedly into the air. At one point his feet reach so high it looks like he’s playing guitar while standing on his head.

In the middle of this chaos stands Princess Chelsea. She sips from a can, waves her arms slowly through the air, then gently plays a shaker while cooing the line, “In heaven, everything is fine,” over and over again. Her presence, an oasis of calm, is at extreme odds with the carnage going on around her. She stares at the crowd innocently, eyes wide, as if to say: “What? All this? It has nothing to do with me.”

Ladyhawke at The Others Way. Photo: Chontalle Musson.

‘In Heaven’ is a song Princess Chelsea often uses as the climax for her incredible live shows, and she played it about 20 minutes after I’d arrived at The Studio on Saturday night. That’s where The Others Way was kicking off. The annual Karangahape Road festival takes over every venue along Tāmaki Makaurau’s most eccentric street and throws as many acts into them as will fit. Then it asks crucial questions: “What have you got?”, “How much can you take?”, and, “Are you going to try and do it all?”

This year, even more than the others, felt like a festival full of FOMO. This line-up was stacked. This line-up was ridiculous. Princess Chelsea’s incendiary set crossed over with a completely bonkers nine other performances, including Mokomokia all the way down at Neck of the Woods, indie-rocker Flea Miller on a new all ages stage near Flying Out, and local legend SJD, who’d set up with a full band inside Galatos.

(Putting this timetable together, promoter Reuben Bonner told me, might be one of the hardest jobs in New Zealand music.)

Dam Native’s dancer at Galatos. Photo: Chontalle Musson.

I wasn’t going to do it. I didn’t think I’d try. I thought I’d chill, take in full sets from a handful of acts, then head home happy. But something about the very high bar set by Princess Chelsea forced me to switch gear. Suddenly, I needed to see as much of The Others Way as I could. I needed to know if anything else could measure up. I needed to know if I still measured up.

So, I ducked inside Galatos to catch the end of SJD’s silky sonics. I blasted my way through the rain to Whammy where Erny Belle proved her class and was rewarded by a jubilant crowd serenading her with ‘Happy Birthday’. Then I ran – yes, ran – back to The Studio just in time to see the hulking presence of Daniel Haimona and a dancer in a V For Vendetta mask take the stage. Together, they ripped through highlights from Kaupapa Driven Rhymes Uplifted, Dam Native’s landmark 1997 album that was lost for many years but recently received the revival treatment.

It wasn’t enough. I kept going. I dived down Neck of the Woods’ steep stairs to take in Diggy Dupé’s upbeat hip-hop party, then squeezed my way into Double Whammy for the first time (great renovations!) for New York duo Dean & Britta, who oozed experience and woozy intensity. By 9pm, I’d already seen more than half a dozen acts, and was impressed by all of them. Truly, no notes.

Fans enjoy The Others Way festival. Photo: Chontalle Musson.

But it wasn’t even close to being over. Back at The Studio, Ladi6 jumped in her moon rocket to deliver a thumping set of dance-friendly space jams on an excellently futuristic stage set-up. Out the back door and into Galatos, Soaked Oats instantly won me over with their trippy guitar freak outs. After that? Honestly, my night became a blur. Because of course it did. There were still sets by Ladyhawke, Voom, Halfqueen, Christoph El Truento, Pollyhill, Half Hexagon and Mildlife to try and take in.

bFM’s excellent review describes this year’s event as “over-stimulating, bustling … like training for a marathon,” which is bang-on. The Others Way is a genre-exploder that uses music to turn your brain into mush in the best possible way. Did I choose the right acts? Did I pick my path properly? I have no idea. What I do know is that my night looked very different to everyone else who attended The Others Way, and that’s the beauty of a festival like this: going with the flow, expecting the unexpected, stumbling into different worlds and soaking it all in. I loved it. I loved all of it.

But there was one big problem: I couldn’t find a mate I was supposed to meet up with. Across a seven-hour music festival, we didn’t see each other a single time. “Guess we were on different schedules,” he texted afterwards. He’s right. We may not have seen a single act at the same time, yet his night was almost certainly just as entertaining as mine. What other festival promises to offer you that kind of experience?

Thanks for being here and supporting Aotearoa music! This is a free edition of Boiler Room, a reader-supported newsletter about our music industry. Sign up to enjoy the full experience…