The Rhythm and Alps festival brings together world-class artists, DJs, and festival-goers to ring in the new year. The best way to enjoy the festival is to camp here, either by pitching a tent or by glamping. It is one of New Zealand's largest and best music events and the sibling festival of Rhythm and Vines. Spend New Year's Eve basking in the breathtaking scenery while attending this music and camping festival.

The Rhythm and Alps festival is located in the gorgeous Southern Alps of New Zealand. Surrounded by mountains and streams, and just down the road lies Lake Wanaka, one of New Zealand's best. A short drive will take you to Queenstown, New Zealand's adventure capital (think Bungy Jumping, the Shotover Jet, and Skydiving). The event attracts 10,000 partygoers and is the South Island's premier festival. Over 50 international and local acts will play on our four stages, with the best sound and lighting production in the country.

Dates: 29th - 31st December.
Location: Cardrona Valley, Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand.

The Rhythm and Vines Festival is a three-day music event held on December 29-31 in Gisborne, New Zealand. It is widely recognized as the world's first festival to welcome the first sunrise of the new year.

Hamish Pinkham, Tom Gibson, and Andrew Witters, all friends from the University of Otago, launched the event in 2003. They intended to host a New Year's Eve party for their friends in a secure and attractive venue, with entertainment provided by up-and-coming and established New Zealand musicians. They had no idea that their small gathering would become a rite of passage for over 350,000 Kiwis over the next two decades, attracting foreign visitors and touring musicians from all over the world.

The Rhythm and Vines Festival, held in Gisborne, the first site to see the sunrise, is world-famous for being the first to welcome the first sunrise of the New Year. It is the sister festival to Rhythm and Alps, lasting three days. It is a massive socio-cultural event, with many top performers coming from all over the world to perform rock and electronic music in front of over 3,50,000 people from various countries and backgrounds.

Dates: 28th - 31st December.

Location: Gisborne, North Island, New Zealand.

WOMAD – World of Music, Arts, and Dance – is an internationally renowned event that celebrates the various types of music, arts, and dance from across the world. The festival's main goal is to excite, educate, and raise awareness about the value and possibilities of a multicultural society. WOMAD has so many activities for tourists to join in, from singing, dancing, crafting, or music workshops for adults and children (it's a very family-friendly few days) to global markets, cooking stages, holistic areas, and poetry corners. This truly is a chilled out festival where you can explore the entire world in a few days in a field. 'Nova Energy Taste The World', an intriguing variation at this festival, sees musicians trade instruments and microphones for cooking tools and unique ingredients.

The event brings together artists from all over the world and collaborates with people from all cultures. Its principal goal is to inform and raise awareness of the worth and possibilities of a multicultural society through folk music and other art forms. This festival has undoubtedly become one of the most famous festivals in New Zealand.

Dates: Second week of March.
Location: TSB Bowl of BROOKLANDS, New Plymouth, New Zealand.

The Kāwhia Kai Festival is an important event on the calendar of the township. The festival, which celebrates Mori food from land and sea, is held each year on the weekend closest to Waitangi Day. This allows guests to enjoy the wonderful culture of the Moris at any time of year. You may eat some of the greatest Mori food, such as wild pig, kebabs, mountain oysters, mussels, and so on. It is a well-attended event. In 2010, about 10,000 people went -Kāwhia has a population of fewer than 400 people.

During the day, kapa-haka (performing arts) ensembles perform and are an important component of this absolutely unique experience. Whakairo-Rākau (wood carving), Rāranga (flax weaving) and Tā-moko (tattooing) sites offer tourists a unique opportunity to witness traditional craftsmen at work and gain an understanding of real Mor arts and crafts.

The all-day entertainment offers a wonderful family atmosphere for both children and adults. This important day is about bonding with their whānau (extended family) as well as their spiritual roots for many indigenous Mor. Lonely Planet named this festival one of the top ten indigenous festivals in the world.

Date: February
Location: Omimiti St, Kawhia, Waikato.

The Hokitika Wildfoods Festival is a foodie's paradise and one of the most f festivals in New Zealand. This is a celebration of all things wild from the West Coast, making it one of New Zealand's top cuisine festivals. The festival includes the customary wild goodies as well as other fascinating culinary alternatives on the menu, with the goal of introducing your palette to something new. Marinated tuna, whitebait patties, gourmet sausages, smoked salmon, a selection of game meats, a traditional Maori hangi, and several world cuisines are among the delectable dishes.

Furthermore, you will be able to enjoy numerous cultural events like the Feral Fashion Competition, After Party, and music performances by many notable musicians on the event's main stage. Some major attractions are Sons of Zion, My Baby, The Slacks, The River Jesters, Dee May And The Saints and the New Zealand Army Band.

Dates: First week of March.

Location: Weld Street, Hokitika, New Zealand.

The World Buskers Festival, one of the most famous festivals in New Zealand is a special festival where you can see some of the best busking pitches from around the world perform right here in Christchurch. The World Buskers Festival is a one-of-a-kind event that features world-famous busking pitches as well as a world-class lineup of local, national, and international artists. This entertainment festival brings together a significant number of street performers, comedians, fringe artists, musicians, and visual artists from New Zealand and around the world.

The World Buskers Festival, held in January during New Zealand's summer, attracts up to 60 performers of various types, including comedians, street performers, acrobats, hoola-hoopers, circus, vaudeville, and burlesque acts, trapeze artists, musicians, visual artists, dancers, and all-around fringe festival performers—those whose ideas, acts, and art are a little bit off the wall, happily and cheekily.

Jodi Wright, the festival's founder and current artistic director, created it in collaboration with Christchurch City Council. It normally attracts around 300,000 people over the course of 11 days, who come to see nearly 500 unusual performances.

Dates: Mid January to the beginning of February.

Location: Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand.

The Queenstown Winter Festival is one of the most famous festivals in New Zealand, conducted in and around Queenstown, New Zealand's alpine town. Since 1975, the festival has been conducted annually. It's been dubbed "the Southern Hemisphere's biggest winter celebration." Queenstown is a popular winter destination since it is close to many major ski areas in the southern hemisphere, including The Remarkables, Cardrona, and Coronet Peak. Locals began organizing a winter festival before the start of each ski season in the 1970s, beginning with a 1975 event organized by singer Peter Doyle and Laurie Wilde, manager of Eichardt's Hotel.

Since then, The Queenstown Winter Festival has evolved to the point that events take place over ten days each June, attracting over 40,000 people. The final four days of the festival are the most important, with free live entertainment in and around town. The festival's events are purposefully designed to be both entertaining and interesting. A music and comedy program is supplemented by events ranging from a polar plunge to a ski tug of war. Previous festivals have also featured New Zealand Ice Hockey League games and the Peak-to-Peak endurance marathon. Fireworks and laser light shows are held on a regular basis.

Dates: 21st - 23rd June (Mid-June)

Location: Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand.

The Marlborough Wine & Food Festival is New Zealand's first and longest-running wine festival, hosted at the scenic Brancott Vineyard in the wine-producing area of Marlborough.

Brancott Estate Wines was the first to cultivate grapes on a commercial scale in Marlborough in 1973. The setting accentuates the grandeur of the distinctive Marlborough scenery and is home to the first Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc plantings. It also planted the seeds for what would become Marlborough's most important social event of the year.

The Marlborough Wine and Food Festival, which draws 8000 people each year from all over the world for a taste of world-class wine, food, and music, has become the largest social event in the region. Festivalgoers can savour a one-of-a-kind collection of world-class wines, savour delectable local cuisine, and dance the night away to music from some of New Zealand's best bands. Throughout the day, there will be wine tutorials from some of Marlborough's top wineries, cookery demos from a celebrity chef, and the annual Fashion in the Vines competition.

The joyous atmosphere generated by the mix of live music, great sunlight, and wine and cuisine from the region's best producers delighted the capacity audience assembled at the Brancott Estate festival venue.

Date: February
Location: Brancott Vineyard, Blenheim, New Zealand

MarchFest is a unique craft beer and music festival, held in New Zealand’s sunniest city, Nelson, at the top of the South Island. MarchFest is located in the beautiful, traffic-free environment of Founders Heritage Park.

The Nelson region is New Zealand's sole hop growing zone - and it boasts the most craft breweries per capita in the country. Unlike other beer festivals, all of the beers available at Marchfest have been exclusively commissioned for the event and have never been tasted by the general public before.

Every year, approximately 15 craft breweries create a new beer for the event. All of these beers make their world debut at Marchfest. Most are Top of the South breweries, with a few invited guest brewers to balance out the variety of beers available in terms of taste and style. Dale's, Dead Good Beer, Founders, Golden Bear, Hop Federation, Lighthouse, McCashin's, Moa, Mussel Inn, Renaissance, Sprig and Fern, Totara, and Townshend are the best breweries in the South. Marchfest, unlike other beer festivals, is about more than just beer. It's also about local wines, ciders, and juices, as well as regional cuisine, including a beer and food pairing lunch that sells out quickly!

Date: March
Location: Founders Heritage Park, Nelson, New Zealand

The Pasifika Festival has been held in Auckland, New Zealand's largest Pacific Island population, since 1995. Thousands of people flock to Western Springs to celebrate the performing arts of Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Kiribati, Fiji, and the Cook Islands. In addition to traditional dance and music, the festival includes contemporary art forms such as hip hop.

The Pasifika Festival is an annual Pacific Islands-themed event held in Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. Since 1993, it has been the world's largest festival of its kind, attracting over 200,000 visitors each year. The festival features traditional cuisine and performances from Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Tahiti, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Tangata Whenua (New Zealand Mori).

Roy Vaughan, a South Pacific Forum secretary, was the festival's original driving force. His idea to create an event to celebrate South Pacific cultures came to fruition in February 1991, when he presented it to several high-ranking officials from South Pacific nations, including Cook Islands Consul General Bill Te Ariki, Papua New Guinea Consul General Alister Martin, and others. The festival was originally scheduled to take place in Central Auckland. A week and a half before the event, the newly formed South Pacific Island Nation Development Agency gathered community feedback and changed the location to Western Springs; Western Springs was supported by the mayor, Les Mills, and the City Council.

Date: March

Location: Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand