Splore director John Minty would like to know why a single Linkin Park concert received government funding – yet Aotearoa’s longest-running music festival didn’t.
John Minty realised he needed help. Earlier this year, the festival director had announced the return of Splore, his beloved and long-running three-day music event, for February 2026. Despite a surge in initial ticket sales, they’d flatlined across winter. “We were quite optimistic that things would bounce back and we’d have our crowd back again,” Minty says. “It became evident in April-May that that wasn’t going to happen.”
Then Minty discovered the government’s major events package. Announced by prime minister Christopher Luxon and tourism and hospitality minister Louise Upston in September, the $70 million fund was created to support promoters booking more concerts and festivals. “We know big events deliver,” Upston said at the time. “Major events … can be a bonanza for the cities and regions which host them, supporting local jobs and incomes in the hospitality and retail sectors and beyond.”
Minty believed Splore would be a perfect fit. Started in 1998, and run by Minty since 2006, the Tāpapakanga Regional Park event is the country’s longest-running music festival. It costs $3 million to put it on each year, yet, aside from a handful of international headliners, most of that money goes back into the local community. Up until it suffered sluggish ticket sales in 2024, Splore has always been profitable while Minty has been in charge.
So, when he saw Upston’s fund being announced, Minty thought “wow”. He spent two weeks putting together what he calls a “persuasive proposal” that outlined Splore’s contributions to the local community. He requested $240,000 to keep his festival afloat, pointing out how the coastal site, about 45 minutes south of Tāmaki Makaurau, “showcased New Zealand” to international visitors. “It’s 100% New Zealand-owned,” he says. “Up to 90% of the $3 million we spend goes back into New Zealand businesses.”
As he wrote his proposal, Minty thought about how his festival had an all-female main stage lineup in 2020, and is as sustainable as it can possibly be. It’s the country’s only event with a stage perched on the beach, where punters can watch artists perform while standing in the surf. Then he remembered the conversations he’d had with overseas promoters and his international headliners. They’d told him repeatedly he had “the best festival in the world”.
Minty’s application was rejected. When asked why, Upston referred The Spinoff to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s acting manager of major events, Lisa Gibson. In a supplied statement, Gibson said they’d received 198 applications and they’d had to make tough decisions about which ones to fund. “The government considered the range of events and spread around the country when making decisions,” she said. “Unfortunately, not all applications could be supported.”
Disappointed, Minty looked again at Splore’s ticket sales. The projections weren’t great. He thought: “This isn’t looking good … I don’t want to be hanging out for yet another year hoping things improve.” So, on Tuesday last week, he issued a press release. Headlined, “End of an era,” Minty outlined how next year’s Splore would be its last. “It’s becoming more difficult to sustain a festival of Splore’s quality and depth,” he wrote. “Rather than diluting it I’d rather it finish with a bang.”
The outcry was immediate. Minty calls the response “intense”. Fans have emailed, texted and called to ask why he’s pulling the plug. They tell him how much Splore has meant to them, and share their memories. “I’ve been running into people on the street,” he says. “People I’ve never seen before are coming up to me, saying, ‘I’ve been to every Splore, I grew up with Splore, my kids grew up with Splore.” Minty feels sheepish when this happens. “I’m going, ‘Oh, shit! Sorry!'”
It’s an outpouring of love that came with a brief surge in ticket sales. Yet none of this has changed Minty’s mind. He shares the same concerns as the promoters of festivals like One Love, Listen In and Womad, who have all called off this summer’s events citing increasing costs, lower ticket sales and the country’s economic conditions. “The reality is, money’s tight and people can’t afford to go to everything. Consumers are being pretty selective,” he says. “In terms of a resurrection … my intent is to wrap it up next year.”
But Minty does have one question he’d like an answer to: why did the government deny him the $240,000 he needed for Splore to continue? Minty’s only been told that he “didn’t meet the criteria”. But he “quibbles” with that, especially since Upston announced a concert by the American nu-metal act Linkin Park, promoted by the international juggernaut Live Nation, among the first recipients of her fund. “Where’s the value to New Zealand for that?” says Minty.
Splore has never sought corporate sponsorship or pushed alcohol sales, things Minty says other festivals do to help turn a profit. Instead, Splore offers art trails, wellness classes and free entry for kids. Those extras add up. “It’s a very expensive festival to run. The difference between breaking even and losing money is maybe 500 to 1,000 tickets,” says Minty. “If we got that funding I definitely wouldn’t have been announcing the last Splore. That would have made a world of difference, definitely.”
It wasn’t to be. So, next February, Splore fans have one last chance to dress up, stand in the surf, dance among the trees and enjoy one final festival. Minty doesn’t know what he’ll be doing next, but he’s looking forward to forgetting all the stress that running a music festival has caused him over the past couple of years. “We want to wrap it up as something that is very special, tie a ribbon on it, let people enjoy the memories of it,” he says.
A whopping 28 years of history is about to end. The weight of that is beginning to hit Minty. “It does make me sad that we can’t carry it on,” he says. “Festivals like Splore and Womad are important cultural events, as opposed to a six-hour event in a park with a few overseas DJs. This is a key fabric of our culture.” He pauses, then says: “I always wanted to think that when I exit it would carry on for ever … it’s such a beautiful thing.”
Splore is at Tāpapakanga Regional Park from February 20-22; tickets are here.
