Electric Avenue’s multimillion-dollar visitor spend-up soars to $14m this year

Friday, 15 May 2026

Visitor spending in Christchurch increased by more than $3m at this year’s Electric Avenue music festival in February.

Christchurch benefited from the Electric Avenue music festival this year to the tune of a $13.9 million visitor spend - up more than $3m* on last year.

A new economic impact report from economics consultancy FreshInfo confirmed the sold out late-February event easily surpassed its 2025 visitor spend figure of $10.5m.

The Hagley Park festival, on February 27 and 28, welcomed close to 90,000 attendees across two days, equating to 49,944 unique festivalgoers.

Split Enz performed in front of 45,000 people at Electric Avenue in Christchurch in February.

The 2025 event was the first to expand to two days but organisers again expanded its footprint for 2026, with a new Electric Stage at the northernmost corner of the central Christchurch park.

This year’s festival, including an international line-up of Kesha and Dom Dolla, together with a set from reunited Kiwi icons Split Enz, took two weeks to set up and employed 2500 people. Six kilometres of fencing was required to keep the site safe and deter anyone trying to gain access for free and 700 toilets were in place to accommodate the crowd who were being entertained across six stages.

Amongst attendees 56% travelled from outside Christchurch, with growing numbers from Australia and the UK - all adding to local accommodation visitor numbers.

Electric Avenue festival director Callam Mitchell said the 2026 festival delivered what it had promised.

This year’s festival generated 79,990 visitor nights with an average stay of 2.98 nights, with the city’s hotel occupancy rate for February recorded at 96.4% - the highest reported for the month in the last decade and above the national average of 88.9%.

Reacting to the latest festival statistics, Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger said “Christchurch is firing on all cylinders”.

“Visitors from far and wide are here in force, spending in our city and experiencing everything we have to offer.”

Dom Dolla’s set at Electric Avenue was the huge finale appearance for the 2026 festival.

Christchurch was “cementing its place” in New Zealand as its events capital, the mayor said.

Festival director Callam Mitchell, managing director of the company Team Event, said the 2026 festival built on the success of the previous year's two-day expansion, and highlighted improved site flow, new stages, and an improved overall guest experience.

Tens of thousands of people have already secured tickets for next year’s festival, with some Aucklanders booking flights to Christchurch without knowing a single artist on the lineup.

“It’s a great measure of where the brand is sitting to know that 30,000 people have already secured tickets … without a line-up,” Mitchell said in April following a ticket presale.

Mitchell confirmed next year’s festival - on February 26 and 27 - will maintain its current capacity, with about 45,000 spots available inside Hagley Park each day.

“Electric Avenue promised a party bigger and better than Australasia had ever seen before, and boy, did it deliver,” wrote Press reporter Maxine Jacobs of this year’s event.

“The set designs, sound engineering, and artists were impeccable, but none so incredible as Split Enz,” she added.

ChristchurchNZ head of major events Karena Finnie said Electric Avenue brings “a buzz and excitement to the streets” of Christchurch.

It “shows off our vibrant city to visitors from around the world”.

*The Press’ original article stated an increase of more than $2m.