Festival-goers embrace mud and magic at a sodden Splore

REVIEW: Rain and queues awaited the 10,000 punters travelling into this year’s Splore, a muddied mess where high spirits remained mostly intact.

Those brave enough to battle the elements on Friday enjoyed energetic performances from Bret McKenzie, Future Islands, and more on the main stage, while the DJ-centric Crystal Palace stage became a place for dancing as a means of release from the weather

English spoken-word poet and musician Kae Tempest was easily the standout act of the festival, their prose bringing the crowd into a shared spiritual experience where raw emotions were laid bare – anyone hoping to “discover something beautiful” would have undoubtedly found it.

Sunday offered a sort-of break from the mud madness, with Māori singer Troy Kingi wooing festival-goers with his typical magic as many danced through dirt and others swam off the remnants of the last 48 hours.

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Outside the live music, Splore offers a wealth of other delights: food options were top-tier and came from a mix of cultures, from Chinese crêpes to Jamaican patties, while cabaret shows provided solid entertainment between acts.

The wellness events were a personal highlight – while my friends disappeared into a hot tent to attend a two-hour-long talk on “emotional intelligence”, I found respite for my mud-soaked funk with an afro-dancing class (complete with an incredible live band) led by Camila Chicon, kicking up mud with my feet and inviting spirits into my body.

“We’re going to be muddy, there’s nothing you can do to avoid it,” Chicon tells her mesmerised crowd of dancers. It was the Splore 2023 experience summed up in one sentence.

Everywhere you walk brings a chance of bearing witness to illicit drug-taking.

On the flip side of the drug use seemingly taking place in every corner of Splore, media commentator Russell Brown hosted a brilliant listening lounge session on the “new frontiers and next steps” of drugs in New Zealand with spokespeople from Know Your Stuff, The Drug Foundation, and Mana Health.

Perhaps other festivals could have turned out a Woodstock-like situation, but it seemed obvious from the get-go that the crowds attracted to Splore are more aligned with the “good vibes” mentality than chaos.

Of course, no music festival is without its faults – the mass amount of mud unavoidable throughout the grounds left some feeling miserable and trapped, and some even had their tents flooded with water from Friday night’s downpour.

Shoes, unless you were smart enough to pack gumboots, quickly became an unnecessary accessory, and many festival-goers let their toes sink into the mud and let the soles of their feet harden across rocky paths.

The constant movement of bodies meant the grounds never stood still enough to dry over, and the venue’s infamous Goat Track became a paranoia-inducing trail of mud and water while the marketplace stayed a sticky swamp.

While Splore is celebrated for being family-friendly, one particularly creepy moment between two toddlers and a stranger in a gimp suit made my stomach turn, and has been hard to get out of my mind ever since.

This might be the future of Auckland’s summer festival schedule – unpredictable weather may have momentarily dampened spirits, but the grin-and-bare-it Kiwi mentality came out in full force without much mayhem taking place.

Another trip to Splore? Sure – having seen it at its best and worst, the festival and all its offerings is an experience worth braving the mud for.

I’ll be sure to remember to bring my gumboots next time, just in case.