Bay Dreams Tauranga 2024 headlining artist Quavo (right) with a fan. Photo / Darshil Patel
“It was electric,” says Bay Dreams festival event director Toby Burrows of Tuesday’s event held for the first time at Tauranga’s Wharepai Domain.
Headlining artist US rapper Quavo took to the main stage to perform for a crowd of about 8500 following acts such as Luude, Nle Choppa, Sigma and drum and bass kings Delta Heavy.
A police spokeswoman said there were no reports of any incidents or arrests at the event.
Burrows described the Bay Dreams North crowd as “pretty well-behaved”.
“Everyone brought really high energy, everyone loved it.”
“The grounds are pretty spotless and then it’s just all the pack down.”
He said the festival employed more than 500 staff for the event including security, cleaners and “core staff” ensuring the “big operation” was a success.
It was the first time since Bay Dreams’ inception in 2016 that it has not been held at Mercury Baypark in Mount Maunganui.
Burrows said Wharepai Domain was an “amazing venue for us”.
“[It was] so nice having all the trees there for the shade,” Burrows said.
“The weather obviously turned it on. It’s been a bit patchy the last few weeks so we really cracked it with the weather.”
Burrows said the event’s core staff members and musical artists were bound for Queenstown for Bay Dreams South, to be held on Friday at the Queenstown Events Centre.
Burrows said the team had begun planning the 2025 festival.
“We’ve already started working on the next one.
“We’re just going to let the dust settle on this one and then we’ll be into that. We’ve got some pretty exciting things in the pipeline that we want to announce soon.”