Big Day Out Dips Toes Back Into New Zealand Market

The touring Big Day Out festival is set to return to New Zealand in 2014 with an event curated specifically for the market on the other side of the Tasman.

Speaking to the NZ Herald the festival's NZ promoter Campbell Smith said the festival, which cancelled its 2013 Auckland event after a slow year in 2012, would move to one of the city's suburbs – Western Springs.

“It' not going to simply be the sixth Australian BDO,” Smith said, “it's going to be a show that we will create and curate for this market.”

He said that festival organisers had developed ideas for a event that “made sense for New Zealand” based on the feedback from punters.

An Australian-based representative from the festival told theMusic.com.au that the festival will have input from the New Zealand, Australian and US-based offices. It is believed that they are seeking a five-year “recourse consent”, which is essentially New Zealand's license to hold the event.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown told the paper, “Any world class city has a constellation of events to cater for the tastes of all of its residents – young and not so young… [Big Day Out's return would] bring this significant music and culture event right into the city for residents and the thousands of visitors it draws to Auckland.”

Last month American sister festival Lollapalooza announced four Australian acts on a line-up that included Phoenix, The Postal Service and Queens Of The Stone Age.