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It was put to me – by a couple in their 60s from the West Coast no less – that Lakes was kind of what Electric Avenue once was before the latter’s ascent of recent years. And among the quaint surroundings of North Hagley, it was an easy comparison to make. There was a sprinkling of international heavy hitters (Wilkinson, check), an eager but moderately sized sold-out crowd of 7000, and plenty of sub-bass to reliably lure Christchurch’s drum and bass faithful.
Elsewhere, I was curious as to who was tasked with breaking up the constancy of belligerent bangers. London duo Good Neighbours were one of the first of these names when they hit the main stage mid-afternoon. Having built a sizable listener base with mammoth single ‘Home’ and a joyous, inoffensive sound rooted in mid-Noughties indie pop. The band’s Oli Fox momentarily alluded to some “technical difficulties” before the band delivered up their international hit to warm fanfare.
Home Brew performing at Lakes Festival on 28 December, 2025.
RNZ / Adam Burns
Home Brew , meanwhile, were the sole hip hop act on the bill, drawing one of the bigger crowds during the late afternoon stretch. The band tucked into some freeform versions of material from their 2012 debut, including ‘Alcoholic’ and ‘Yellow Snot Funk’ which stretched out into a nomadic jam, that also adlibbed Slum Village’s J Dilla-produced ‘Raise it Up’. Interspersed were the darkly comic quips of the magnetic Tom Scott as he sarcastically played up the punters’ potential hedonistic pursuits. The West Auckland crew were typically stellar.
Maribou State ‘s more soulful, musically-expansive form of downtempo electronica, backed by the graceful presence of vocalist Talulah Ruby, also offered party-goers with a more idle sanctuary.
By early afternoon the Lakes Stage, which sat among the trees bordering Victoria Lake, was heaving. Club Angel, out of Sydney, ran through a salvo of ’90s house anthems (The Bucketheads ‘The Bomb’ Cajmere’s ‘Percolator’, Stardust’s ‘Music Sounds Better With You’) which ignited the small community that had occupied that pocket of the festival. Sin tucked into a similar form of nostalgia when she launched her set with Armand van Helden’s indelible Tori Amos remix from 1996, uniting the oldies and the horde of Gen Zers in the process.
The Hagley Park stage was well lit up by artists into the night.
RNZ / Adam Burns
But of course these events are about endurance. And as the sun lowered, the BPMs went up a notch. Belgian-born, New Zealand-based producer Alix Perez, one of the better proponents of the buttery side of drum and bass, was paired nicely with the Lake’s stage twilight atmosphere. This was best heard when he served up his ’70s soul and horns-sampling ‘Elastic Soul’. It was smooth and silky enough to spark a young shirtless man atop a nearby picnic table.
Then there was the other end of the spectrum. Alongside a small onstage entourage, a pink sequin hatted-Mozey soundtracked a zombie-eyed rave at the main stage with his buzzsaw bass onslaught. It was chaotic. It was grubby. It was unsubtle. I don’t know, maybe I’m too old.
Security occasionally had their hands full, at one point pursuing, at high-speed, one supposed troublemaker through the snaking site. But despite this, police did not report any arrests or “significant issues” throughout the day.
The visual pyrotechnics locked into gear on the main stage for the final hours of the night. KETTAMA employed some deep keyboard stabs, and an old school Eurodance vibe, that was tailormade for the big field.
But many had come for Wilkinson, a festival favourite to these shores. Fans rallied for one final push for the British d&b luminary, who was underwritten on the mic by MC Ad-Apt. It was a lean, mean set, spanning ragga-spliced cuts, to more majestic breakbeat thumpers.
It was a marathon effort for most. Even some of the youngsters had tapped out halfway through Wilkinson’s set, as the die-hards were left to it.
And who can blame them for taking up the opportunity. An oversaturated festival market continues to correct itself with the list of events facing uncertainty or succumbing to the economic climate altogether.
By the end of it, it was a whirlwind, party-in-a-box day. But also only the start for what is a big and somewhat pivotal period for not just festivalgoers, but promoters as well.
