Its demise was only announced this morning, but the Auckland Central MP says she wants to work with the mayor’s office to bring back Karangahape Road’s beloved music festival.
More bad news landed this morning for fans of Auckland’s Karangahape Road: The Others Way has met its end. Organisers of the annual street-wide music festival announced that due to financial pressures, the festival wouldn’t be returning this year, meaning its triumphant November 2025 outing was its last.
First launched in 2015 by Flying Nun co-owner Ben Howe, the festival evolved over the decade from a hodgepodge collection of venues to a full-blown block party, with more than 3,000 attendees and US singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten as its headliner last year.
But “delivering an independent boutique festival on the smell of an oily rag” had been “extremely hard”, organiser Reuben Bonner said in a statement announcing the news, with the potential for organisers to go “bankrupt if this goes wrong”. “In short, the magnificent joy received from delivering The Others Way is outweighed by the sheer financial strain and emotional toll it takes on us to deliver,” Bonner said.
But just as fans of The Others Way came to terms with the news, a small glimmer of hope appeared this afternoon in the form of Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick, who told The Spinoff she was already working to “revive” the festival.
“I’ve actually been heavily involved with this over the last few days,” Swarbrick said from parliament. “I have been engaged with the mayor’s office and directly with Reuben [Bonner], who’s behind the festival.” The situation was “actively evolving”, Swarbrick said. The mayor’s office has confirmed to The Spinoff that Swarbrick’s office had been in touch.
Money troubles aren’t a new issue for the festival. Covid-19 lockdowns saw The Others Way cancelled in 2020 and 2021, and organisers received funding from Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (now known as Tātaki Auckland Unlimited) to cover their losses. It was a “real blow”, booking agent Sam Harman told Flying Nun in early 2021. “Financially, The Others Way doesn’t make a huge amount of money.”
The festival has tried to explore new modes of funding, such as sponsorships and funding partners. But, “we haven’t been able to secure the secret formula to deliver the festival in a way that meets both our standards and our financial obligations”, Bonner said in the statement.
“We want to express deep, deep gratitude to everyone who has been part of The Others Way journey,” he continued. “You are the reason this festival meant something real. For the love of god, if you have the means to, go out and buy a ticket today. To an independent artist’s show run by an independent promoter at an independent venue. It’s a wild time out there in the current music industry landscape of Aotearoa, and a lot of us are fighting to survive.”
The Others Way is the latest in a line of other local and independently organised festivals that have been cancelled or placed on indefinite hiatus in recent years, including Splore, Listen In, Bay Dreams, Juicy Fest and Womad.
