Plans already under way to make Ultra 2027 Wellington music festival bigger
Friday, 17 April 2026
A week on from Wellington’s sold-out Ultra music festival, plans are already under way to make the 2027 event even bigger - putting it on a track to potentially surpass Homegrown crowds.
The Friday inaugural festival for the capital sold out within three weeks and, when extra tickets were added, they too sold out. About 23,000 people packed in to the areas east, north and west of Te Papa for the electronic music festival.
Promoter Mitch Lowe, from Audiology Touring, said the event was a “raging success” and he was now focused on “growth” for 2027.
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“With nearly 50% of all people coming from out of town, we are also excited to see what material impact this had on the economy,” Lowe said.
“We have had restaurants and cafes reaching out saying it was either their first or second busiest week of trade for the year. We are both grateful and excited for the future of this event in the city.”
Ultra came to Wellington after WellingtonNZ started hunting around for replacements after the loss of the annual Homegrown festival, which attracted up to 25,000 punters on its best years.
Deputy mayor Ben McNulty attended Ultra and rated it one of the best-organised festivals he had been to.
“The logistics, atmosphere and environment were world-class and I’m keen to see this established as a regular Wellington fixture that will grow year on year given the massive out of town attendance we saw over the weekend.”
Bar owner Greig Wilson said Ultra was a boon for bars and good for the city.
“As a city we should roll out the red carpet,” he said.
If anything, Ultra attracted a slightly older, better behaved crowd than Homegrown - but there was still a high level of intoxication as punters headed towards bars when it ended at midnight.
Mayor Andrew Little, who didn’t go to the festival, said he was “thoroughly impressed” with what he saw.
“I’m keen for the council to work with the promoters to grow the event. Ultra clearly has great potential,” he said.
WellingtonNZ, a council-owned economic development agency, has commissioned an economic impact assessment of the event.
Events and experience general manager Heidi Morton said the event had potential to grow in scale and success.
“WellingtonNZ is already collaborating with festival organisers to explore what’s possible to increase the scale of the event in the future. The focus for us is on enhancing the experience for fans while still delivering benefits for the city and our residents.”