Happy Mondays are among the so-called "elderly ravers" heading our way to light up 90s fans' summer. Photo / Getty Images
Happy Mondays are among the so-called "elderly ravers" heading our way to light up 90s fans' summer. Photo / Getty Images
This summer the "elderly ravers" of New Zealand will dust off their Nike Air Max, wallet chains and cargo pants to relive their musical roots, as an influx of 90s dance and indie darlings tour down under.
The Prodigy, Fatboy slim, Eminem, Slash, Usher, Aqua, Vengaboys, Alice in Chains, Salt-N-Pepa, the Happy Mondays and Wu-Tang are just a few of a motley collection of 90's acts set to grace Kiwi stages in the coming months.
Concert promoter Hamish Pinkham said his business Endeavour Live had made a concerted effort to target a 30-plus crowd for their Electric Gardens festival - to be held at Ellerslie Racecourse on February 2 - which would bring Fatboy Slim and Underworld here.
"It's great to be able to cater for some of the elderly ravers as we call them, those who have experienced festivals and dance events over the years but maybe have family and work commitments now that prevent them from attending other festivals around the country," Pinkham said.
"It just seems there's an appetite for that crowd who want to see the dance legends of their youth. We've seen huge response to the Fatboy tour."
Sarah Thomson, program director for Auckland radio station 95bFM, said nostalgia had always been a marketing tool to attract concert goers, and the emergence of a 90's-focused audience just slotted into that.
"Absolutely, you can meet up with your friends, you can buy back for the evening a little bit of your own past. But it's not new, we had a lot of 80's acts touring not so long ago," Thomson said.
"Pop's always been slightly addicted to its own past, because so much of pop is selling people an aspiration and selling someone nostalgia, so why not package it all together?
Salt-N-Pepa will hit New Zealand stages in coming months. Photo / Getty Images
"You've hit the sweet spot with audiences in their 30's. They want to go back there for the night and they've got disposable income and can afford a babysitter so it's great."
Alan Kenyon is one such Aucklander in his 30s who will be attending Electric Gardens festival this coming February, and freely admitted the desire to recapture a wild past concert experience convinced him to buy a ticket.
"I remember being wasted while dancing to Underworld at a Big Day Out in the early 2000's with a mate and really wanted to see them again," Kenyon said.
95bFM are promoting the NZ tour of "90's alt-pop heroes" The Breeders.
But on the other end of the 90's music spectrum are two heavily 90's pop-focused festivals in Friday Jams at Western Springs on November 18, and So Pop at Spark Arena on February 5, presented by Frontier Touring.
Thomson said the line-ups of such festivals do undeniably have a cultural moment in history in their sights when put together.
Fatboy Slim performs. Photo / Getty Images
"You worry as a promoter, this band has reunited, so has this band, I probably can't do a world tour off their back-catalogue strength, but if I get them all together that is a pretty strong snapshot of a period of time which I can definitely sell," Thomson said.
"It's a bit of a feeling of being alive in that time, like picking up a TV Hits or a Smash Hits or a Melody Maker magazine. Why not buy a ticket and go back there for a night?"
90's music invasion for NZ Summer 2018/19:
Happy Mondays Prodigy Underworld Fat Boy Slim Eminem The Breeders Slash The Proclaimers Shihad Wu-Tang Orbital Alice In Chains
