Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz told NZME she was \u201csaddened\u201d to hear 2026 would be Rhythm and Vines\u2019 final year is Gisborne.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all have our R&V stories,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone will have their stories and their memories. But 24 years is a good stint.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she expected locals would be sad to see it go because \u201ceveryone enjoyed the vibrancy, and the fun, and the memories, and the friendships and bringing young people to town\u201d.<\/p>\n
The four-day event contributes about $4 million to the local economy but Stoltz said she was confident the region would find another event to fill the gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that our region knows how to put their best foot forward to host guests,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo now it\u2019s an opportunity for us to possibly find something else to fill that spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rhythm and Vines chief executive Kieran Spillane told Newstalk ZB the move was prompted by the festival\u2019s need to evolve.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 25 amazing and interesting years in Gisborne, it was time for a hard decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said organisers undertake yearly reviews to assess the event\u2019s ongoing relevance and viability.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last year or so, these reviews have certainly been pointing us towards a location that will help us grow and help us be in business.\u201d<\/p>\n
While acknowledging the community\u2019s disappointment, Spillane said organisers wanted to give as much notice as possible to support a smooth transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how this affects people who have been part of R&V for many, many years and we don\u2019t take that lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
While many were concerned about the gap the festival would leave, others were more than happy to see the festival take its final bow in Tair\u0101whiti.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be nice to enjoy our town over new years without all the clowns here,\u201d one person wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur town will be a bit cleaner because most of them have no respect and empty all their rubbish onto the side of the road,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n
The Rhythm and Vines team during the period of setting up the venue in Gisborne, a task many locals play a part in every year.<\/p>\n
Over the years, the festival has hosted international acts including Justice, Moby, Calvin Harris and Playboi Carti, alongside Kiwi favourites Fat Freddy\u2019s Drop, Six60 and the Black Seeds.<\/p>\n
Rhythm and Vines is the latest long-running music festival to relocate amid mounting pressure on the live events sector.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Wellington staple Homegrown announced it would shift to Hamilton after nearly two decades on the capital\u2019s waterfront.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz told NZME she was \u201csaddened\u201d to hear 2026 would be Rhythm and Vines\u2019 final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[145033,74,95,9344,694,1558,219,156,35702,38114,12506,305,78,12514,2845,101,440,5829,111,139,69,384,3550,60012,1361,3551,1533,1530],"class_list":["post-537374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-4m","tag-after","tag-and","tag-announcement","tag-announces","tag-been","tag-economy","tag-entertainment","tag-exit","tag-gap","tag-gisborne","tag-have","tag-in","tag-leave","tag-leaving","tag-left","tag-local","tag-many","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-rhythm","tag-saddened","tag-that","tag-vines","tag-will","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537374","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=537374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}