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Barney Chunn met with John Minty, Splore’s festival director, in the lead-up to discuss the reasons behind running the festival, and what to expect from attending. In the name of precise reporting, he braved the excellent weather, exciting line-up and idyllic environment to find out whether Minty’s intentions for the festival came to be…

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I’ve heard the term ‘Sploretopia’ almost exactly as often as I heard the term ‘Splore Withdrawal,’ each equally and temporally divided either side of Sunday afternoon, sitting somewhere on a bell curve much the same shape as the Bombay hills that separates Splore Festival from the urbanity of Auckland/the world.

As Patrick Reynolds’ noted as he started his talk about the Transport blog, it seems odd to talk about the city at Splore. Though he meant it in a political-transport-conversation-kind-of-way, still it seemed true that those cold and grey places had slipped from everyone’s consciousness - hard to remember amongst the trees and the fields of the majestic Tapapakanga Park.

When I met with John Minty about six weeks before the festival, he was excited and focused on the music. We talked about the time he spends on curating the acts - of the years it sometimes takes to get some to the festival.

2015’s Splore was no exception to the excellent array of local and international artists, especially given that it was the first year it had run annually. From the prowling energy of local act Heavy, playing in the natural ampitheatrette of the Living Lounge, to the precision and vastness of Lunice. From Mr Scruff playing for five hours to a less spritely but certainly grateful Sunday crowd to the as always excellent Phoenix Foundation.

The diversity of the crowd is as diverse as the categories you could put them into, and the music, art, activities and food managed to cater for all.

I talked to Mr Scruff on Saturday after he had shared his thoughts on the state of DJing and music in general in a live interview with Russell Brown. During the talk he came across content and self aware – you could imagine if it were him 20 years younger, he might’ve been annoyed that he was annoyed that David Guetta was filling stadiums and Paris Hilton was making big bucks from pressing play on a iPod. Now, as he says, ‘It’s got nothing to do with me and what I’m doing.’

I asked him about his impressions of the festival. Despite how stereotypically Northern-English-laconic he was, he found his passion when talking about spending good times with good people – a category into which Splore, it seems, fits.

“Initial impressions are amazing,” he drawled. “It’s a very rare treat [to be able to bring your family] - it only happens maybe once every 2 or 3 years. We’re having a whale of a time. I’m going to pick up my daughter in about half-an-hour, go for a swim and relax and properly get into it. Which is how it should be.”

I caught up with Luke Buda of The Phoenix Foundation shortly after, only briefly after he’d arrived. Though his impressions were good, he had to admit that he’d ‘only been backstage, so I’m not sure that’s a full scope of Splore.” We talked about the Milgrim Experiments and unrealised potential – does conversation flow more freely when you do an interview by the sea? I dragged him back to the topic at hand.
“Well [the festival] looks great, but I left my togs at the accommodation!”

On Sunday afternoon, as we drove back over the Bombay’s, as those who’s phones had managed to survive the weekend beeped and vibrated themselves back to life, it felt that urbanity and life had woken from it’s three day hibernation, and was calling for attention.

As Minty said, he hopes that Splore can have a feedback loop – can filter into the creative consciousness of Auckland and NZ with a focus on community and collective creative spirit. As we drove back, slowly checking the accrued messages of the weekend, even on our phones a little bit of Splore remains – in chips to the corners or flecks of paint that still won’t come off. The festival felt less like a music festival and more like a community one. People generally and genuinely were there to be happy and inviting, of each other and the experiences the festival contained.

The theme this year was home, and as we drove back towards it, it seemed as though Minty and the Splore team had achieved what they had hoped for – a big new family for the weekend and a home away from home.