New Music Festival to Launch in Bay of Plenty

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A music and arts festival inspired by the approach of big name events Glastonbury and Coachella is scheduled to launch in New Zealand. The McLaren Falls Music & Arts Festival will take place from January 10 – 12 at the Bay of Plenty’s McLaren Falls Park next year.

Festival Director Paxton Talbot says the objective of McLaren Falls is to create an event with broad appeal and vibrancy filling a space that has been missing from the New Zealand festival calendar. With an eclectic line-up and the "other-worldly" festival site, he believes it will, "bring a taste of Glastonbury and Coachella to the Pacific."

Talbot has an extensive history working with music festivals across the world. His impressive CV boasts top positions with Croatia’s coastal Terraneo Festival, EXIT Festival - named the ‘Best Major European Festival’ of 2014, Bulgaria’s Spirit of Burgas Festival and New Zealand’s own Rhythm and Vines, for which he held the role of Festival Director.

Following in the footsteps of its festival luminaries, McLaren Falls is set to boast a "genre-bending" artist line-up of international and local acts, spanning everything from: pop, rock, folk, electronica, psychedelia, blues, soul, hip-hop, world and alternative. The line-up will be announced this August.

The festival aims to attract 10,000 people to the bush setting nestled below the Kaimai Ranges. The popular McLaren Falls Park comprises 190 hectares of parkland. Onsite camping will be available in close proximity to the park's picturesque lake, waterfall and a glow-worm forest.

See the festival website for more information.