{"id":162755,"date":"2025-12-01T14:13:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/162755\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:13:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:13:15","slug":"a-triumph-the-others-way-2025-reviewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/162755\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A triumph\u2019: The Others Way 2025, reviewed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A trio of perspectives from the crowd at Auckland\u2019s The Others Way<\/a> 2025.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cIt\u2019s a lie!\u201d along to the song \u2018Nest Egg\u2019 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 \u2013 Pegasus lives in my millennial bones. I also caught a fair chunk of Georgia Knight\u2019s set and have been searching for autoharps on Trade Me ever since: what a gorgeous, ethereal musician.<\/p>\n

\"AGeorgia Knight performing at Double Whammy at The Others Way. (Photo: Den \/\/ Red Raven News)<\/p>\n

I loved bumping into all manner of mates and acquaintances between gigs \u2013 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 \u2013 unreal vocals sailed out over the gently sweating Karangahape road crowd \u2013 it was magic. \/ Claire Mabey<\/p>\n

\"ASam Scott of The Phoenix Foundation, playing at The Others Way. (Photo: Den \/\/ Red Raven News)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s underground and nightlife, Karangahape Road. I also realised that attending solo wasn\u2019t 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 \u2013 from colleagues to your local MP. Everyone was there for the music, to see old favourites and find something new. <\/p>\n

I\u2019d 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\u2019s best performances. Shona Lay was a surprise revelation; I\u2019d tagged along to Pitt Street church with my friend Louis and was knocked sideways by her melodic, emotive ballads. Curious about Womb\u2019s 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\u2019s what Others Way is for, eh: the live experience. \/ Emma Gleason<\/p>\n

\"AW.I.T.C.H playing at The Others Way. (Photo: Den \/\/ Red Raven News)<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Others Way seems to get better every year. It\u2019s a huge credit to the Banished Music crew that while growing bigger it remains so eclectic, curious and anchored \u2013 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My musical highlights: a nostalgic swim in Phoenix Foundation\u2019s 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\u2019ve seen twice in the last week and just holy hell how, you know?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ASharon Van Etten. (Photo: Den \/\/ Red Raven News)<\/p>\n

More prosaically, the drag about a festival, sometimes, is that it can start to feel a bit like an airport \u2013 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 \u2013 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trio of perspectives from the crowd at Auckland\u2019s The Others Way 2025. This was my first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[492,156,106889,106890,111,139,69,1066,106891],"class_list":["post-162755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-comments-enabled","tag-entertainment","tag-music-festival","tag-music-review","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pop-culture","tag-the-others-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}