Rock music festivals
The Beatles in New Zealand
'We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah!'
Everything changed after The Beatles came.
Rachel Stace, Beatles fan
New Zealand Music Month
New Zealand Music Month began in 2001. Each May, New Zealand music is showcased on radio and television and in live performances.
Arts, literature and music links
General
- Te Ara entry on creative life in New Zealand
- Find out about arts, literature and music events on EventFinder.
Music and broadcasting
Beginnings - Rock music festivals
The genesis of rock music festivals lay in the troubled emergence of teenagers as a distinctive group and economic force in the second half of the 20th century. This voluble market, where the new and different has high currency, is keenly attuned to changes in technology and shifts in fashion. Youth culture has always been sharp-eared, quick-stepping and internationalist at heart. Teenagers are natural networkers, knitting together communities of interest nationally and internationally.
Setting the scene - The Beatles in New Zealand
'Roll over Beethoven'
Nambassa - rock music festivals
‘A festival of music, craft and alternative lifestyles’
Kiwi music shows on TV - Timeline
New Zealanders can now view music videos over the internet or on music channels C4 and Juice TV. But after TV was introduced in 1960 several generations of New Zealanders kept up with the music scene through dedicated music shows on mainstream TV. Popular shows included C’mon in the 60s, Happen Inn in the 70s, Ready to roll, Radio with pictures and Shazam in the 80s, and RTR in the 90s.
Wellington - The Beatles in New Zealand
The Beatles' first stop in New Zealand was Wellington. Seven thousand screaming fans – nearly all young women – waited as the band touched down on 21 June 1964. One girl badly slashed her thigh trying to climb a wire fence, and two others were forced through the fence because of pushing from behind.
A team of 30 police officers, some in plain clothes, was on hand. Bill Brien, in charge of the operation, later said that:
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