Wellington's waterfront welcomed a crowd of 25,000 people today for Kiwi music festival Homegrown after Covid-19 cancelled last year's.
Homegrown organisers added a sixth stage for this year's event, a 'thank you' to Kiwi music fans who have waited for two years for it to return.
"Coming in and out of alert levels has been a character-building time so we're absolutely rapt to be here today and be able to put on the gig we promised," Homegrown managing director Andrew Tuck told 1 NEWS.
Last year's festival was cancelled just days before New Zealand went into lockdown.
The stages were already up, but it sent $1.5 million down the drain.
"It definitely crossed our minds as to whether we could continue because we did take a massive financial hit and it is tough - we all have kids and families and mortgages," Tuck says.
Kiwi rockers Blindspott will be one of the final acts and have come bearing their own gift for the event - a teaser of a new song.
"For us as a music community, as artists it's actually like the one time of year we actually get together and celebrate you know its pretty cool, it's like a school reunion eh!" says singer Damian Alexander.
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