Yesterday afternoon the first of thousands of festival-goers — 500 campers from across the country — arrived to secure the perfect camping spot and enjoy "campers’ night" at Rhythm & Alps.
First-time attendees Sophie Gilchrist, Tomasina Martin and Brooke McMahon, of Blenheim, said they were most excited for headline acts RUDIM3NTAL, Santigold and Dizzee Rascal, as well as meeting new people.
"We were listening to the headliners in the car on the drive down," they said.
Despite all the excitement, the trio remained a little nervous about the communal showers.
"During the day we will go into Wanaka, it’s one of our favourite places.
"We counted eight bags of things between us and that doesn’t even include food," they said.
Festival general manager Harry Gorringe said crowds could look forward to a sizable fireworks display as well as domestic and international artists.
"There is 12 months of really hard work that goes into a few days," he said.
The three-day festival was expected to attract 10,000 attendees today and tomorrow and had about 500 people with three-day passes for yesterday’s campers’ night.
Rhythm & Alps was founded in 2011 by Alex Turnbull and the website describes the festival as the South Island’s sister to Gisborne’s Rhythm & Vines.
It had started "in a humble paddock in Terrace Downs" and found "its true home ... in the heart of the Southern Alps".
