Wear flowers in your hair

Lothlorien Festival

You can tell by his name that Dale Demeulemeester isn't from round these parts.

He came to New Zealand in 1971 from Detroit, the industrial American city near the Great Lakes of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Tired of how polluted those lakes were getting he moved to the tiny settlement of Ahuroa - an hour north of Auckland and 12km from Puhoi off State Highway 1 - to start an organic orchard he named Lothlorien.

"When I was young I could fill my canoe with fish from the lakes," he says. "But then it got really dirty. So we thought it was time to move and do things differently."

He converted the dairy farm at Ahuroa into an orchard that today produces some of the best Feijoa wine around.

From 1977 onwards, Lothlorien was also famous for its annual free music festival, which came to an end in 1998 because it got too big.

But on February 19 the festival is back, with limited tickets sales to keep numbers sensible. The line up includes Katchafire, Rhombus, Kora, Ladi6 and Verse Two, Hollie Smith, 12 Tribes Of Israel, the Sunshine Sound System, and pioneering local reggae band, Herbs.

In the mid 70s, through one of his neighbours, Demeulemeester was introduced to Herbs' guitarist Dilworth Karaka. The pair have been friends ever since and Herbs have played nearly every Lothlorien festival. The cover art of their first album, 1981's What's Be Happen, has a photo of the band playing on stage at the festival.

The idea for the festival came about when Herbs were travelling back to Auckland from a gig in the Far North and they called into the orchard.

"Dale offered his place as a venue for a gig basically," says Karaka.

"It started out as a gig for the people of the valley and as a place for us to play really, and it grew from there. The local school got really involved and local community projects took the opportunity to run a barbecue [to raise money]. And people stayed overnight on the farm so they didn't have to drive after drinking his wine," he says.

"Myself and Dale were from that hippy era - so yeah, it was happy times, good times."

This year's festival could be seen as a reunion gig for Herbs but Karaka says the band does get back together when "certain gigs pop up".

"We just look forward to the opportunity to play together - especially the outdoor ones like Lothlorien. It works for us because you're there to perform but there's no pressure on you. The outdoors has that hippy flavour to it. You know, that Woodstock feel," he laughs.

Weekend at Littleweed

Pull up a kumara bin. Take a load off. Slow down.

That was the sentiment of the picnic-cum-festival held at Littleweed - a rustic orchard and nursery in Katikati in the Bay of Plenty - during the late 70s and early 80s.

The last festival was held in 1983. But on February 19 and 20 the Weekend at Littleweed revives the music, dance and good times of old, with bands such as the Black Seeds and Phoenix Foundation performing. Although, now that the shed used for curing kumara is no longer in use, you might be sitting on kiwifruit bins instead.

Littleweed was a smaller version of the major hippy music festivals of the day, such as Sweetwaters and Nambassa.

As a result of these hippy tendencies, Littleweed got a bit of a reputation around the Katikati-Tauranga area, says festival organiser and Littleweed's owner, Anne van Leeuwen.

It was mostly a good reputation. "But some of the talk was pretty over the top," she says, "and we were considered a bit of a weird place, especially considering it was named Littleweed."

The name had nothing to do with "the evil weed" and was coined by her 7-year-old son Roel.

"It's hard for me to say how we were perceived [back then] but I know there were a lot of inaccurate stories about what used to go on here. I guess we had some people who lived in house trucks," she smirks.

Admittedly, van Leeuwen and her late husband, Wim, were ahead of their time back then.

"I'd say we were definitely not mainstream. He was an Amsterdamer and rules were never my strong point," she says.

"I was interested in fringe theatre but times then were conservative and I was very mindful of having performances [at Littleweed] that were interesting but didn't push the boundaries too far for people. I was trying to build confidence in what we put on here so it had to be professional, interesting and worthwhile."

Events and concerts at Littleweed started in 1979 and, most famously, featured iconic 70s' dance company, Limbs.

Limbs - who van Leeuwen says put Littleweed on the map - will perform at this year's festival alongside other acts, including Minuit, dDub and Voom.

The popularity of the early concerts meant Littleweed's scope was expanded and the larger-scale picnic-style festivals were born. A stage was built, pot belly stoves installed for heating, and mattresses laid at the back of the audience for the kids to sleep on.

However the regular festivals stopped when Wim died in 1983.

The idea to revive Littleweed this year came to van Leeuwen on a "sunny Sunday" at last year's Splore dance music festival at Waharau Regional Park in the Hunua Ranges.

"Sitting there, with everybody relaxing and listening to the music was just so good," she remembers. "For people who have busy lives, it's important to have time out, listening to good music, with good people."

Performance

* What: Weekend at Littleweed
* When: February 19-20
* Where: Littleweed Orchard, Works Rd, Katikati.
* Who's playing: The Black Seeds, Minuit, the Phoenix Foundation, dDub and Voom. Limbs Dance Company will also perform.

* What: Lothlorien Festival
* When: February 19
* Where: Lothlorien Orchard, Ahuroa Rd, Puhoi
* Directions: Turn left off State Highway One at Puhoi and drive 12km
* Who's playing: Herbs, Katchafire, Rhombus, Kora, Ladi6 and Verse Two, Hollie Smith, 12 Tribes Of Israel, and the Sunshine Sound System