Photographic Evidence

Take 7000 revelers of all ages, set them loose over the pristine fields, beaches and bush of Tapapakanga Regional Park; then throw in numerous musical delights, stimulating art and provocative performances. Spread this mix over 3 days of nonstop glorious sunshine and what do you get? Splore 2010, that’s what.

Splore bills itself as a family friendly outdoor music and arts festival, and for the eighth time it went off swimmingly. The joy of the event is to be found in its diversity and sharing the time with your friends and family.

On arrival (there was no queuing because we carpooled like good little greenies) we had our vehicle thoroughly searched for liquor and other naughties, such as glass; and had a forgotten ticket promptly replaced by the friendly crew. Blue armbands for everyone over 18, yellow bands for any one underage, even babies who were just starting to toddle along.

We camped in the Grasslands Camp – a giant meadow bordered by cicada laden bush and eucalyptus trees. High winds saw us have a hell of a time set up a borrowed gazebo. We settled in and cooked dinner, another hangi, with only a few minor mishaps (getting drunk, a minor grass fire). My friend Bridge also bought homemade Oreo cookies which went down a treat!

Speaking of food, over the course of the weekend I heard some positively orgasmic reviews of the jerk chicken, run by the same lovely people that were at Rhythm and Vines. Being a garden variety vegetarian I missed out on that BBQ treat, but did end up trying a warm ‘festival’. Festivals are best described as a traditional Jamaican fried dumpling, made out of slightly sweet cornmeal. They’re usually used to mop up gravies, but I found mine pretty tasty simply washed down with some homemade lemonade. There was also the standard hippie fare you’d expect to find- it’s not a real music festival in New Zealand without the One Love caravan and their pakoras.

Friday was musically the biggest day for me. (It’s also the evening where you still haven’t had a bad sleep in a horrifically hot tent, with girls pretending to be horses trotting down the walkway at 4.30am). We ate, got dressed and headed down the goat track to the beach. The Goat Track is notable as it was a narrow and steep pathway suitable only for the nimble. It was not recommended for ‘late night cavorting’ and indeed, I saw one intoxicated young man take a serious tumble through the scrub.

International act Lupe Fiasco was skipped in favour of general wandering around the festival, enjoying the ambience. From what I did catch of his set, I ascertained the singles the crowd knew worked far more successfully than emotional ditties that he wrote ‘during a dark time in his life’. We headed to the Rum Shack for cold beer and energizing Train Wrecks… That’s Red Bull and Jagermeister folks.

After New Zealand band Miniut performed (with vocalist Ruth Carr’s giant blonde nest of hair dominating the stage), it was time for electronic luminaries Basement Jaxx to bring the party. They did so with panache and booty shaking, care of their 2 of their back up vocalists who elevated the Basement Jaxx time slot from a DJ set to a banging live performance.

They performed a wide ranging set – from classics like Bohemian Rhapsody, their own hits Rendezvous and Where’s Your Head At, to heaters like Major Lazer’s Pon De Floor. After holding hands with a complete stranger while chanting for an encore, and wearing out the rubber soles of my shoes from all the prancing, it was time to head up the hill and collapse.

A 6.00am sharp sunrise on Saturday morning saw us rise earlier than was humanely acceptable. Within two hours, the heat was scorching and we were all resigned to hiding out under the gazebo. After a lazy breakfast and the best thing money could buy for the time – a trim flat white – we headed down the hill for a swim.

Swimming in the fresh water lagoon is one of the highlights of Splore for me.  The water is icy enough to chill your body right through to your bones, so once we’d finished lounging in the lagoon, we jumped into the sea, which felt like bathwater. I have never felt so refreshed in my life!

Saturday night’s headline act was Los Angeles DJ The Gaslamp Killer. I admired Mr. Killer (real name William Benjamin Bensussen) for the energy he was putting into the performance; but in the end found him to be a show-pony more concerned with shaking his head of ringlets at the crowd than spitting good tunes out of the speakers. I left the boys to enjoy the ‘filth’ and headed over to the Living Lounge to see local band An Emerald City.

An Emerald City played wearing masks, surrounded by dancers wielding fire fans. They explored the space time continuum and soothed my by then weary soul with their mixture of east meets west gypsy psychedelia. They achieve this sound by mixing violin, Persian long-necked lute, sitar, flute; and traditional western instruments like guitar, piano, drums with panache.

The Living Lounge was a straw strewn space that hosted workshops during the day (think drumming, permaculture and hula hooping), but at night transformed into a den of frivolity. On Saturday evening the Living Lounge hosted the Midsummer Night’s Dream 2050 party. Fauns, robots, fairies, demons and assorted creatures of the night swarmed in to watch burlesque, rope acts, acrobatic feats and general Shakespearean mayhem.

The art trail is always a highlight of Splore and this year was no exception. Best seen at night, the trail featured delights such as a robot with a disco in its chest, neon poems, a walkable harp, a giant xylophone for hours of collaborative fun, and Ride-In – a mini cinema with the projector powered by viewers cycling on rollers.

My favourite installation, the Tree Of Life, overlooked the main stage. It’s a giant Pohutukawa with bright leis wrapped around every bough. At night, a black light illuminated the tree, giving the leis an acid coloured glow.

Sunday saw us relax, pack down the tents, have a swim and ponder how good the universe was to us. Simply – we came, we saw, we Splored.

Mark February 2012 down in your diary as an excellent time to be in the vicinity of the South Pacific -  then make your way to the Coromandel. It’s such an uplifting, horizon broadening, friendly event – I doubt you would ever regret making the time to go to Splore.

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