Sixteen South Island bands kept the 1300-strong crowd dancing until the early hours at the third River Range Music Festival at the Cromwell Racecourse on Saturday.
Performers on stilts and human sculptures were accompanied by relaxing music during the day, but as the children left and the sky grew darker, the tempo of the music and pace of the dancing picked up.
Queenstown musician Peti Seiuli, of Ghetto Blaster, said the festival felt ‘‘welcoming''.
‘‘It has an awesome atmosphere. It's one of those places where people can bring their family and feel comfortable.''
The band drew dancers towards the stage with their unique blend of sounds which the band described as ‘‘psychedelic reggae funk with a twist of house''.‘‘We just kind of play the music we love,'' Mr Seiuli said.
Co-organiser Blair Scoullar said he thought carefully about how to organise the line-up.
‘‘From 5 o'clock things start to pick up and you've got to try to keep the flow going.''A lot of seasonal workers from Europe and South America attended, he said.
‘‘They have their own way of doing things, which is a bit different to people from Cromwell, and they really seem to embrace our local festivals.
‘‘But for these festivals to work you really need to get a core of the local people from Cromwell too, which is what we've tried to do.''
Security confiscated some smuggled alcohol, but overall the behaviour was ‘‘pretty good'', he said.
‘‘A couple of guys decided to have a wee snooze so we had to get them home.''
The event began as the Bannockburn Music Festival in 2014 and was held at the Bannockburn Hotel before it was moved to the Cromwell Racecourse last year.
‘‘We've picked the perfect little nook of the racecourse to have the festival.
‘‘The views are unreal and you get that glow from the twilight as it gets dark.''
The plan was to host five and ‘‘go from there'', he said.
‘‘We said five because we're getting old and have kids now. It takes a lot of organising, but when we get there we'll see how we feel.''
