Cross St Music Festival started in 2018, in response to small venues around us dwindling and closing in Tāmaki. It was a way of taking what we enjoy in our urban clubs and putting it on a bigger platform, to show off the raw talent sitting in our own backyard.
Cross Street was the right backdrop. It has always been home to the eclectic and the diverse, an area rich in stories of debauchery, the redlight district, and raucous house parties. We set that energy alight once a year with a 100% New Zealand showcase, at the humble scale of a laneway block party.
It now holds a real place in the Karangahape Road community. The event brings together artists and musicians from different backgrounds, bridges cultural gaps, and gives emerging acts a stage next to established ones. The programme is adventurous and eclectic on purpose.
We recognise the area's origins, its whakapapa and its historical placement, so Māori traditional knowledge is part of how we plan and how we work with the communities and local iwi around us. That includes environmental stewardship and economic development, with the aim of improving life for Māori and for the diverse community that calls Karangahape home.
Talk to us