Queenstown Lakes music fans may not have had Elton John play on their doorstep, but they will be spoilt for choice this summer with the wealth of national and international acts lined up.
Six multi-act, open-air festivals are scheduled in Queenstown, Gibbston, Cromwell and Wanaka between New Year's Eve and February 21, 2012.
The festivals range from the enduringly popular, such as two-yearly Rippon Festival, returning for the ninth time, and the annual Winery Tour, back for its fifth year, to the brand new, notably the EarthTonz New Year's Eve Music Festival.
They will charge between $69 and $149 per adult and it will cost more than $600 to attend all of the events, not including booking fees, food, drink and travel costs.
However, the festivals are expected to appeal to different age groups thanks to the headline acts, from youthful high-energy beats and rhythms of the Freestylers, Kora and Street Chant, to contemporary chart stars Gin Wigmore, John Butler Trio and Tiki Taane, to baby-boomer juke box hits of Creedence Clearwater Revisited, the Doobie Brothers and Little River Band.
Rippon Festival founder and director Lynne Christie, of Wanaka, said everyone was feeling the pinch on ticket sales, whether there was increased competition or not, due to the poor economic climate. However, Rippon was down to its final 400 tickets out of more than 4000, which went on sale in late September.
"Promoters like the area. There's some really great sites for concerts and there's minimal rainfall, which makes it [more] safe for open-air concerts than some parts of the country," Ms Christie said.
"We're only biennial, but it really depends how all these events go. The aim is to cover your costs and, ideally, a bit of seed money for the next one, so if that doesn't happen, potentially there could be fewer festivals in future.
"If they all do OK, there will be just as many, if not more."
EarthTonz will make its debut with 18 acts on stage and usher in the festival season.
Festival producer Dan Allen, of Missouri, said there would be a lot of festivals for a such a short time span and small population base, "but if you look at the fact Christchurch has had its unfortunate circumstances, which has kept a lot of concerts from going in there, and the new [stadium] down in Dunedin - though you need a big act to go in there - the Queenstown Lakes district is relatively centrally located in the South Island. I think people will travel there.
"It's one of the most beautiful places, if not the most beautiful place on Earth, so with good weather in the summer months, I think it's very possible they could all survive.
"I think it's great for the region, but it may be a little overkill."
Asked what made him choose the Lakes district for the first Earthtonz, Mr Allen said his partners in Alpine Entertainment enjoyed success with the inaugural Gibbston Valley Winery Summer Concert on March 5 this year, but the main reason was there was not, at the time, a major New Year's Eve festival in the South Island.
When Rhythm and Vines announced in August plans for its new sister festival Rhythm and Alps, in Canterbury yesterday and today, Mr Allen said he "wasn't very happy about it".
However, he said he had already heard of people who would attend the Rhythm and Alps festival at Terrace Downs resort, then travel south to Gibbston and Earthtonz.
"Ticket sales are picking up quite a bit and we've released a promotion with Tui that offers discount tickets for mates to Earthtonz and that's going to boost sales.
"Tui's going to be marketing it and so are we ... We're going to have street teams passing out flyers, because there'll be a lot of New Zealand and international people coming into the Queenstown area who've never heard about Earthtonz, so we hope to grab that attention."
