The new year is set to be celebrated in style throughout the South with festivities including the Bass Camp Festival in Southland, fireworks in Pounawea and the annual Rhythm and Alps festival.
The Octagon in Dunedin will come alive from 6.30pm as young emerging bands Paper Frogs, Solid Merit and the Sugar Coated Bullets play.
At 8pm, Dunedin covers band The Moreporks will perform.
From 10pm, The Easy Hearts will see in the new year on a purpose-built stage in the lower Octagon.
Now in its ninth year, the festival
will feature Kiwi artists Shapeshifter and Opiuo and UK DJs Wilkinson and RL Grime, as well as Floating Points, Jon Hopkins and American rapper Freddie Gibbs.
The festival began yesterday and will run until the early hours of Wednesday.
In Wanaka, a DJ stage will host a range of well-known local DJs from 9pm to 1am, in the second year of a three-year trial to encourage and engage youth away from the main bars and Ardmore St.
Things will get a little bit country at Lake Hawea on New Year’s Eve, thanks to the Top Paddock music festival being hosted at the Lake Hawea Hotel.
Nine acts, including Australian band Dragon and New Zealand artists Jody Direen and Kaylee Bell, will entertain about 2000 people on two stages from 4pm.
In Queenstown, the celebrations will take place at Earnslaw Park on the lakefront.
The new year will be brought in with a line-up of live music across two stages, entertainment, food and the usual fireworks display from a barge in the middle of the bay at midnight.
The line-up includes live acts No Man’s Land, Shay and Pearly, Rock Felony and The Flavour, as well as sets from DJ Pops and DJ Cuz.
Further south, music lovers in Southland are in for a treat at the second Bass Camp Festival being held at Camp Taringatura, between Invercargill and Dipton.
The event, which began yesterday and runs until January 2, will showcase musical performances, DJs, fire performers and daily workshops on everything from yoga to martial arts.
In Te Anau, up to 2000 people are expected to flock to Lions Park for the annual Party and Fireworks in the Park.
For those in the Catlins, a family affair is on offer at the daytime Beach Carnival and Big Dig at Papatowai, before the bonfire and fireworks display begin at 10pm.
In Central Otago, crowds are expected at venues in Alexandra, Bannockburn, Clyde, Cromwell and Naseby.
Oamaru will have a party in the Oamaru Harbour area, where there will be live music, food vendors and a kids' zone with karaoke and face painting.
MetService is predicting a rise in temperatures across the region, with a fine afternoon and evening in the 20s predicted for Dunedin, Invercargill and Oamaru. Central Otago will see much of the same, Queenstown and Wanaka anticipating temperatures well into the 20s.
