‘Another level of incredible’ - Electric Avenue 2024

Monday, 26 February 2024

The large crowd enjoys music from New Zealand band Shapeshifter at Electric Avenue music festival held in Hagley Park on Saturday.

Festival-goers have praised the organisers of Christchurch’s Electric Avenue festival, which saw 35,000 music fans dancing into the night to acts including The Chemical Brothers, Six60 and Shapeshifter.

A lightshow from headline act The Chemical Brothers at Electric Avenue, Christchurch, February 24, 2024. Photographed by festival goer Stefan Mutch.

The annual event - returning for a ninth year to Hagley Park - is New Zealand’s largest festival and was largely sold out this year with just over 100 tickets available when gates shut at 5pm.

Shapeshifter’s P Digsss on stage at Electric Avenue.

Those attending credited the festival’s success to a combination of brilliant acts and detailed hospitality planning, which saw separate toilets for men and women and a one drink per person policy brought in as the day wore on.

Festival-goers wrapped up during a short spell of rain.

Social media comments about the event were overwhelmingly positive, with one attendee - Sonja Courtis - rating headline act The Chemical Brothers as “incredible”.

“Chemical Brothers! Another level of incredible. How lucky are we to have had them there,” she wrote.

Six60 take in the crowd at Electric Avenue, Christchurch, February 24, 2024

Fellow festival goer Jill Oetgen was largely positive about the day: “It was amazing. I loved the layout and the separate toilets!

Some of the large crowd of 35,000 enjoy the atmosphere at Electric Avenue.

“More water stations were needed. It was like a stampede in there trying to get some water.

“The music was fantastic.“

“Everyone was on really good form,” another Christchurch resident who attended told The Press. “It was really really well organised,” they added.

Tiki Taane on stage at Electric Avenue. Taane performed with Synthony, was MC-ing for DJ Axis and mixing for Shapeshifter at New Zealand's biggest music festival.

Police, including specialist drug staff, plus drug testers from Know Your Stuff and Environmental Science and Research (ESR), were on site to keep people safe at the festival.

After the gates closed Senior Sergeant Roy Appley said the event was going “remarkably well” and praised the event organisers.

He acknowledged that while there was a reasonable amount of drug use, including cannabis, MDMA and cocaine, he considered it to be at manageable levels.

“There's more than what I'd be comfortable with, in truth but the way of the world at the moment drug use is part of people's recreational time so we have to adapt to that,” he said.

A police spokesperson said on Sunday ‘the vast majority of attendees were well behaved and enjoyed themselves“.

“There were some arrests for fighting in and around the venue but no reports of any injuries or further issues.”