The Others Way festival won’t be coming back

Independent music festival The Others Way won’t be returning this year, with no plans to ever come back.

“We know how sad this will make a lot of people, and none sadder than us,” organisers Banished Music said in a statement posted to social media on Wednesday morning.

The annual festival has been held on Karangahape Road, in central Auckland, since 2015. The November 2025 party was its last.

The call to can it comes after years of mounting financial pressure, industry costs and an increasingly unstable live music and funding landscape, Banished wrote.

“The magnificent joy received from delivering The Others Way is outweighed by the sheer financial strain and emotional toll it takes on us to deliver,” said Banished, who took over the festival in 2023.

“Rising costs across every aspect of the entertainment industry, combined with ongoing uncertainty in the sponsorship and funding landscape, and people just doing it too tough out there to commit to buying gig tickets have created significant pressure.”

They said they’d explored every avenue available to try and raise funds, but could no longer operate sustainably.

“We haven’t been able to secure the secret formula to deliver the festival in a way that meets both our standards and our financial obligations,” they wrote.

“As well as that, over time the debt that we have accumulated on this project can no longer responsibly be carried forward.”

The Others Way festival was founded by former Laneway Festival promoter, Ben Howe in 2015. What began as a small street festival ten years ago, manifested over the decade to becoming a sold-out, 3000 people street party, boasting a bill of 40 names across nine venues on the strip.

Last year, in its tenth and final year, festival director Reuben Bonner took on the “mighty challenge” of closing down K’ Rd. The event was headlined by US singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten.

“It’s kind of K’ Road’s event, and it always has been, so the community really gets behind it,” Bonner told RNZ’s Nine to Noon last year.