Media release

Splore announces love is in the air for 2014

Love will be in the air at the 10th Splore Festival in February 2014. Splore 14, to be held on 14-16 February at Tapapakanga Regional park 70km SE of Auckland, will be the 10th Splore festival held over a 16 year period, cementing Splore as the longest running outdoor festival in New Zealand. The festival’s new website is now live and provides plenty of details about New Zealand’s favourite boutique festival.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary, the Splore team is compiling a historical account of the 10 festivals and is inviting people to share their Splore stories and become part of this historical record by sending both their stories and images to ren@splore.net. It has yet to be decided whether the content provided will become a printed book, an e-book or take on another guise, but whatever is produced after Splore 14 will allow first timers to Splore the opportunity to also be part of this 10th year celebratory record.

“The 2014 festival’s theme is ‘Show Some Love’,”says Amanda Wright, Splore’s founder and festival director. “We have heard of people that have met their wife or husband at Splore or groups of friends that have converged at Splore to celebrate with their life long and maybe lost friends. We have also had six legitimate weddings at Splore. Children who came to the first few Splores are all grown up now and are returning as adults. People have experienced some pivotal moments at Splore and we’d love to hear from them and include them in the historical record we are producing of Splore.”

Splore organisers are asking the audience to remember that Splore love is as much about considering and honoring others, their identity, ideas, beliefs and feelings as well as respecting the beauty of Tapapakanga Regional Park and the nature beyond.

In true Splore style, organisers expect the audience to embrace the event’s ‘love’ theme by incorporating it into their costume style, drawing inspiration from love in all its guises – perhaps including some of history’s most notable romantic partnerships - Orpheus and Eurydice, Samson and Delilah, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Romeo and Juliet, Napoleon and Josephine, Pocahontas and John Smith or even Aoteaoroa’s original lovers Ranginui and Papatuanuku.

“We want people to imagine love and all its fantastic associations from mythology and theology to romancing celebrities,” says Wright. The Splore team has put in a huge amount of love and passion to make Splore what it is today and we want to celebrate this with the community. All of us feel a whole lot of love for the culture that we are all responsible for creating.”

Splore welcome back some special long-term sponsors for 2014. Tiger will resume their spot on the top of the hill overlooking the main stage and are giving the audience a chance to stamp their own mark on Splore by creating an engaging design for the Tiger reusable drinking vessel.

Splore is introducing a reusable polycarb cup as part of its sustainability policy and drive to achieve a zero waste festival. Splore has a dedicated sustainability manager and reusable drinking vessels are just one new initiative being introduced to reach the zero waste goal. Tiger are running a competition to find the best design with some great prizes like tickets and flights to Splore. A brief and details can be found on Tiger’s website http://www.tigerbeer.co.nz/splore

Splore is at capacity and there are limited tickets available, however more camping and parking fields have been leased from neighbouring landowners, allowing more room for visitors to ensure a comfortable weekend. Glamping is back with an increase in numbers, there are now 50 glamps for sale which can be accessed via www.splore.net or www.iticket.co.nz. Glamping provides the ultimate in luxury camping where people don’t have to lift a finger and have real beds with Egyptian cotton sheets to sleep in. Pre-booked camping and campervans will also be back at Splore 14. Check the Splore website for the dates when pre-booking becomes available.

ENDS