Fat sound of summer
The Homegrown crowd will get back to its roots with Fat Freddy’s Drop in 2012.
The band, one of New Zealand’s biggest export set ups, are “massive” in Europe and currently doing very well in the States, but they’ve always chosen to be independent, says Homegrown’s Jonnie Halstead.
“Freddy’s like to do things their own way and they don’t like to commercialise,” explains Halstead, “They’ve been watching us closely and I think they’ve finally accepted us as a genuine roots festival.”
A mix of successful and emerging bands is key to the event’s success, says Halstead.
“I think that Freddy’s have decided it’s time to give something back to New Zealanders, because they’re playing a few top festivals this season,” he says.
Stages set up on the waterfront – seven in all, as opposed to five or six in previous years – are themed according to genre and apart from Fat Freddy’s on the Dub and Roots stage at Waitangi Park, other big names pepper the announcements list.
“We’ve got Shihad, Op Shop, The Feelers on the rock stage at the TSB Bank Arena,” says Halstead, “The new stage where the Fanzone was is called the Red Bull Lab, where artists from different bands will jam together. You might get Jon Toogood with the guys from Fat Freddy’s or Ladi 6.”
Two free to the public stages are included, one outside Te Papa in the space next to Circa, and another at Frank Kitt’s park.
Attendance will hit 17,000 but Halstead’s not worried.
“We used to do the Vodafone X Air before this event, and that easily got 100,000 people so we know what we’re doing security-wise,” he says, “We’re R15 and we have a strict alcohol policy. We haven’t had an arrest in our five year history because we set the tone that it’s to be enjoyed as a day in the sun and people respect that.”
General admission tickets are now on sale for what Halstead likes to describe as “Kiwi music’s biggest day.”
Homegrown, Wellington waterfront, February 18 2012.
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