Rhythm & Vines: Gisborne, NZ’s Summer Capital

Rhythm and Vines has become a yearly pilgrimage for the young and young at heart, Gisborne NZ

Date: 29 December 2027 – 1 January 2028 (Camping and early access traditionally begin from 28 December.)

Location: Waiohika Estate, Gisborne

Official Website: www.rhythmandvines.co.nz

For a few days between Christmas and New Year, Gisborne changes completely.

Quiet coastal streets suddenly fill with festival buses, surfboards strapped to dusty cars, barefoot crowds carrying camping gear and groups of twenty-somethings trying to remember where they left their friends somewhere between the vineyards and the main stage.

Then the music starts.

And by sunrise on New Year’s Day, tens of thousands of people are dancing on a hillside vineyard overlooking the Gisborne coastline, becoming some of the first people on earth to welcome the new year.

That is Rhythm & Vines.

What began in 2003 as a relatively small music event among the vines at Waiohika Estate has evolved into New Zealand’s most iconic New Year’s festival and one of the country’s largest annual tourism events. Crowds have reached around 25,000 attendees during peak years.

But Rhythm & Vines is more than just a music festival now.

It has become part of Gisborne’s identity.

Held across the rolling vineyard hills of Waiohika Estate just outside the city, the festival combines huge international artists, New Zealand music culture, camping, food, art installations and Gisborne summer atmosphere into something that feels closer to a temporary city than a normal concert.

The setting itself is a huge part of the appeal.

Unlike urban festivals squeezed into stadiums or industrial sites, Rhythm & Vines unfolds across open vineyard landscapes surrounded by hills, farmland and warm Gisborne summer evenings. As night falls, stages erupt with lights, bass and smoke while crowds drift between music arenas scattered across the estate.

Then comes the moment everyone waits for.

New Year’s sunrise.

Because Gisborne is internationally known as the first city in the world to greet the sun each morning, Rhythm & Vines has built its identity around welcoming the first sunrise of the new year. Thousands of people gather facing east as darkness slowly breaks over the Pacific Ocean beyond the hills. It is part music festival, part pilgrimage, part collective sleep deprivation.

Over the years, the event has hosted major international artists including:

• Calvin Harris

• Disclosure

• Netsky

• Chase & Status

• RL Grime

• Pendulum

• Tame Impala

• Ice Spice

• Kid Cudialongside many of New Zealand’s biggest acts. (Wikipedia)

But even with its global profile, Rhythm & Vines still carries a distinctly Gisborne feel.

Relaxed. Slightly chaotic. Beachy. Dusty. Friendly. A little sunburnt.

For many visitors, it becomes their first introduction to Gisborne itself.

And for Gisborne, Rhythm & Vines remains the single biggest annual event on the calendar.