The 2021-2022 summer festival season has been – weird – to say the least. New Zealand as a country changed from the Covid Alert Level System to the Traffic Light System. When this happened, different parts of the country were at different levels, and thus, some regions able to have gatherings of 100 people plus, and Auckland & Northland were not. Since I just changed jobs and had 2 multi-day festivals in Northland at the end of January and beginning of February, we decided to stay in Auckland over the holiday period. This meant I was eyeing up any day festivals in Auckland.
The first one that caught my eye was Golden Lights. A new day festival, with other locations in the Bay of Plenty and Nelson called Golden Rush, it was at the Trust’s Arena in Henderson. Set on the first Friday of 2022, it had a great lineup: Wilkinson, Friction, Culture Shock, Lee Mvttews, Montell2099 and more.
Set over 2 stages, we went to the smaller stage to see Poris as soon as we arrived. She started the night off great for my fest fam, playing some unique drum & bass that had us dancing and soaking up the sun.
We then claimed our space in front of the main stage for the rest of the night. There were a few shady options, but away from the stage, so our group took turns holding down the fort until the sun went down completely.
Wilkinson was definetely the highlight, as he played his new single “Used to This” and it was only the second place he performed it live!
Saturday was also a new festival in Auckland, Plane Sailing in Victoria Park. Although the line up wasn’t as good, I had another group of friends going so I bought a ticket at the last minute.
Friction was playing again, along with Hybrid Minds + Tempza and Shapeshifter.
Comparing the two, I preferred Golden Lights. Yes, the location was not ideal and it was expensive & hard to get an Uber afterward. But the checkin process was smoother and they had more shady areas. Yes, Plane Sailing was in a much better location and even had a third stage with 2 silent DJs, it took us an hour to get past security and there was NO SHADE. Normally I prefer Waver wristbands, but not for a one day festival. Plane Sailing had Waver, so again Golden Lights was easier to get drinks with just PayWave/EFTPOS.
Did you attend both? Which did you prefer?