Laneway NZ To Move?

Since the Australian festival, which also stages in Singapore, made its local debut five years ago, it has been held in three sites as it progressively grew in numbers.

The last site, at Silo Park at Wynyard Quarter where it drew 12,000, is being turned into a residential development. For the past nine years, Laneway has been working with Auckland Council to move to the Domain cricket grounds. But leaked documents showed a problem: the grounds can only have three major cultural events a year, and the quota seems to have been filled. Council confirmed Laneway could use the site in 2017, and offered the use of another ground, Albert Park.

Laneway NZ director Mark Kneebone, who was “shocked” when he found out, is still working out a solution. Getting the right clearances in time to stage at Albert Park by March could be a problem.

An option is to take up offers from Christchurch and Wellington to stage there. A decision will be made by end of August. Laneway posted on Facebook that it is “most definitely” being staged in 2016 and it’s “shaping up to be our best year yet.”