After days of rain threatened to dampen celebrations, O’Brien credited the “Rocky Horror gods” with holding off the weather, allowing the night to be “wonderful”.
More than 50 years on, he was still “astonished” to be celebrating the show’s enduring success.
“There’s no good theory as to why it should be the longest-running movie in history,” he said.
What continued to “wonder” him most was how the show had evolved into a “rainbow community event”, built on “inclusion and kindness” and welcoming to everyone.
“It’s an additional loveliness,” he said.
“There was a current of warmth and friendliness everywhere,” O’Brien said, describing the crowd as “delightful”.
The statue itself came about after a television feature of O’Brien filmed in Hamilton. Local Mark Servian suggested immortalising O’Brien as Riff Raff in bronze.
“I wasn’t going to argue with that, was I?” O’Brien said.
“I do like bronze.”
The Rocky Horror Picture Show creator Richard O’Brien unveils the Riff Raff statue for its third time in Hamilton. Photo / Mark Hamilton
Servian, a Riff Raff Public Art Trust representative, described the night’s atmosphere as “very joyful, very positive and very queer”, adding the crowd was “very intergenerational”.
The statue was first unveiled in Embassy Park, on Victoria St, in 2004.
Servian said O’Brien worked as a barber on the site in the early 1960s, often daydreaming while cutting hair before heading next door to the Embassy Theatre to watch late-night double features, experiences that later shaped The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Riff Raff – the statue – left Embassy Park when it closed in October 2021 to allow construction of the Waikato Regional Theatre. It was unveiled for a second time outside Waikato Museum, where it remained from March 2022 to July 2024.
“For the last 18 months, he’s been in hiding completely,” Servian said.
In January this year, the $80 million BNZ Theatre opened, allowing the statue to return to its original home.
He said the statue represented the core message of Rocky Horror of diversity, queerness and accepting people for who they are, summed up in the show’s famous line: Don’t dream it, be it.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show creator Richard O’Brien arrived by vintage limousine and walked the red carpet for the third unveiling of the Riff Raff statue. Photo / Mark Hamilton
Another highlight of the night was the return of the hidden Riff Raff Cam.
Installed beside the statue, the camera allows fans to watch live through the Riff Raff Statue website as visitors dance the Time Warp beneath statue.
Servian said the camera had long been part of the statue’s appeal, transforming it from something to simply look at into a playful, participatory experience.
People ring friends and family from around the world and dance in front of it so they can watch live, he said.
Richard O’Brien said the crowd at the Riff Raff statue unveiling was “a current of warmth”. Photo / Mark Hamilton
Servian said the return of both the statue and the camera symbolised more than nostalgia, marking the revival of a cultural space that had been missing for several years.
He said Riff Raff had become one of Hamilton’s most recognisable pop-culture landmarks, with community feedback described as “fantastic”.
People were glad to have the statue back on display.
Annabel Reid is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke’s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.