EXODUS 2012, New Years Eve Festival
EXODUS FESTIVAL – The first ever NZ Reggae new years festival was held 31st December 2011 at Papamoa, New Zealand.
The 13+ hour long festival featured 11 acts including NZ’s top reggae bands Katchafire, House of Shem, 1814, Three Houses Down, Ardijah, Sons of Zion, Tomorrow People, Foundation, Vintage, NRG Rising and Homai Te Paki Paki winner Chad Chambers.
Over 6,000 people attended the event.
The festival overcame many barriers; the local authorities, concerned residents and neighbours, as well as mother nature! There were storms over the entire country, which affected not only Exodus Festival but every other festival happening around the country on the day.
The weather before the festival wasn’t the best, it rained for a couple of days and then on the day of the festival at 6am, torrential rain again set in this time it looked like it wasn’t going anywhere! The rain stopped in the late afternoon but it didn’t seem to put a damper on the festival, in fact I’m sure this will be the first time the local shops have sold out of gumboots and rain ponchos.
Sunlive News said “…it sounds like the event was a fantastic end to one year and start to another. I take my hat off to Tim Cooper and all others involved in the initiative – this was a big call for the Bay and it was inspiring to see them remain undaunted by whatever the heavens could throw at them on the day.
The fact that we can now have a legitimate New Year’s Eve music festival here represents a strong step forward for the area after over a decade of official paranoia about any sort of celebration that could attract “the wrong element”. It all started with the somewhat out of control millennium bash on the Mount beach and led to liquor bans and the outlawing of anything that breached the “fun for all the family” straightjacket.
I can only imagine the council hoops the Exodus Festival had to jump through – but I’m very glad they did”
