Waikino Music Festival

Waikino Music Festival was a 1977 music and alternatives event held on Bicknell’s farm in the picturesque Waitawheta Valley between Waikino and Waihi, New Zealand. The event was staged as a forerunner to the Nambassa festivals and was a community project run by Peter Terry. The Waikino festival was originally intended as an eight hour all day music and cultural event, however, a steady flow of bands, buskers and poets from around Auckland and the Waikato spontaneously rocked up to perform. Consequently the event ran non stop for 24 hours and attracted 5000 patrons.

The Waikino festival broke new ground for the presentation format of open air concerts, by combining popular rock music and entertainment with cultural based demonstrations. Between band set ups; solo artists, poets and storytellers, comedians, yoga demonstrations and ravers would entertain, enabling the show to continue without breaks. These ideas were even further developed at the subsequent Nambassa festivals.

Proceeds from the Waikino festival went towards the purchase of a winters supply of fuel for the predominantly pensioner community of the sleepy Waikino village. Nambassa later contributed towards the construction of a new Waikino community post office, which was washed away into the Karangahake Gorge during the great 1981 Ohinemuri River floods.