Camping plans for McLarens Falls Festival

THREE-DAY FUN: Paxton Talbot stands in the area near where the main stages will be for the McLaren Falls Festival.PHOTO/JOHN BORREN

Seventy plus bands have been promised to keep punters entertained at the inaugural McLaren Falls Festival, which aims to draw 10,000 people to the park.

The all-ages festival on January 10-12 promises three main festival stages with international acts from the United States, Australia and Europe but consent for the festival has not yet been applied for.

Several camping areas will include an Indian tepee tent valley, and boutique camping for those not so used to the outdoors.

Festival director Paxton Talbot said organising the resource consent had been an ongoing process and his staff were working with the Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District councils.

"We have a few more boxes to tick and a few more things we need to do to make sure we got all our boxes ticked locally."

Mr Talbot said the resource consent they were applying for would only take 20 working days to turn around.

Western Bay of Plenty Council spokesman Peter Hennessey said the council had yet to receive a resource consent application for the event. "Council staff are working with Tauranga City Council and the applicant's representative in advance of an application for resource consent being presented for consideration."

Mr Talbot said the music programme would be broad with recognisable artists for the younger crowds and those with more seasoned music tastes.

The first bands were expected to be announced on August 20.

"It's a bit like the stars are aligning, there are only two times in the whole of the New Zealand calendar totally optimised for building a huge festival, a massive international festival. When there are enough artists of different genres and excellence moving through the territory.

"We couldn't possibly be doing something big down here if we weren't doing it with Australia.

"There is music from the deep south in the States, there's blues, dance music, lots of folk and lots of music coming from the Bay."

There was a bigger vision planned for the festival and the Bay area too, he said.

"The big vision for the Bay is that this is a seven-day event that runs through the Mount, through Tauranga, though Katikati and it's a massive arts thing."