A trio of perspectives from the crowd at Auckland’s The Others Way 2025.
This was my first time at The Others Way and I am now deeply jealous that Auckland gets to have this beautiful festival. I spent a lot of time in The Studio seeing magician Anthonie Tonnon (so much sound for one person), and watching The Phoenix Foundation play through their 2005 album Pegasus. My voice is hoarse from screaming “It’s a lie!” along to the song ‘Nest Egg’ which is as poignant as it ever was. The last time I saw TPF play Pegasus was in the Wellington Town Hall a million years ago and being in a room full of people communing to the atmosphere of that music took me right back. Such classy musicians with an alchemy like nobody else: atmospheric, lyrical, emotional – Pegasus lives in my millennial bones. I also caught a fair chunk of Georgia Knight’s set and have been searching for autoharps on Trade Me ever since: what a gorgeous, ethereal musician.
Georgia Knight performing at Double Whammy at The Others Way. (Photo: Den // Red Raven News)
I loved bumping into all manner of mates and acquaintances between gigs – such a sense of excitement in the movement and in the idea that everyone was having their own special time according to their own pathway through the line-up. My night ended with Sharon Van Etten: we wiggled and wove our way nearer to the front to get to the better sound (it was pretty quiet towards the back) and were spellbound by the rock goddess and her stunning band – unreal vocals sailed out over the gently sweating Karangahape road crowd – it was magic. / Claire Mabey
Sam Scott of The Phoenix Foundation, playing at The Others Way. (Photo: Den // Red Raven News)
I too was an Others Way virgin and now understand what all the fuss is about; 42 acts performing across nine different stages, located not in some field or stadium, but in the home of Auckland’s underground and nightlife, Karangahape Road. I also realised that attending solo wasn’t only not weird, but it was a surprisingly common strategy. Rather than wrangle a pack of mates into a group consensus, it was easier to navigate the schedule in ones and twos. And Auckland being Auckland, you were likely to bump into numerous people you knew – from colleagues to your local MP. Everyone was there for the music, to see old favourites and find something new.
I’d seen both Georgia Knight and Geneva AM perform before, but never pass up a chance to do so again and was rewarded with two of the night’s best performances. Shona Lay was a surprise revelation; I’d tagged along to Pitt Street church with my friend Louis and was knocked sideways by her melodic, emotive ballads. Curious about Womb’s live show, I chose them over W.I.T.C.H (Lyric went to their set and raved about it) and experienced their music in a radically different manner to listening to their album at home. Because that’s what Others Way is for, eh: the live experience. / Emma Gleason
W.I.T.C.H playing at The Others Way. (Photo: Den // Red Raven News)
We strolled along to Karangahape Road shortly after 6pm and floated out seven hours later, humming on a series of unrepeatable performances, blissed out crowds and a very healthy reminder of just how magnificent Auckland can be when it turns one on.
The Others Way seems to get better every year. It’s a huge credit to the Banished Music crew that while growing bigger it remains so eclectic, curious and anchored – easily meeting the measure of any great festival: the joy of the stuff you know and love mixed with the joy of discovering something you might otherwise never have encountered.
My musical highlights: a nostalgic swim in Phoenix Foundation’s Pegasus, the sublime Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory (though I wanted 25% more volume and an hour more show), and, taking the stage at Double Whammy as the clock struck 12, the gobsmackingly brilliant Elliot & Vincent, whom I’ve seen twice in the last week and just holy hell how, you know?
Sharon Van Etten. (Photo: Den // Red Raven News)
More prosaically, the drag about a festival, sometimes, is that it can start to feel a bit like an airport – queue for a while, walk for a while, queue for a while, and so on. So another trophy to TOW here. There were a few bottlenecks at the K Road stage, sure, but that was more than compensated for by the lack of queues across the board – no queue for wristbands, no queue for bars or loos, and barely a queue for a venue, despite them all feeling full as. A triumph. / Toby Manhire