Community, connection and culture: the Twisted Frequency ethos
Choosing what to do and where to go is a difficult task for a festival lover in the New Zealand summer. From city one-dayer’s to multi-day affairs in the middle of nowhere, each event covering a huge array of genre and experience. There’s one that I’ve been interested in for many years but never managed to get to. Nestled among the bush in the Tasman area at the top of the South Island lives Twisted Frequency, a new years offering committed to community and connection – as well as throwing a hell of a good party.
Twisted is not just a festival but a pilgrimage. I’ve been captivated with the stories from my friends convoying up or down the country, stopping to camp along the way, diving into any body of water to break up the drive, the anticipation of what’s to come growing. Some may put Twisted in a narrow box of hippy festivals for a select group of people, but after talking to founder David Tait and my Twisted-veteran friends, it’s clear that it’s so much more than that.
The variety of music when I actually looked up who was playing astounded me. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that electronic music is not in my typical wheelhouse of knowledge, but for the bands, spying Earth Tongue, Ringlets, and Dropper to name a few, definitely piqued my interest. Looking back over the years there were plenty I recognised too, forming full, diverse and interesting lineups with something for everyone. This is a huge tick for the festival and perhaps why it’s attracted so many people and continued to grow over the last ten years.
Rosa: Community, connection and culture seems to be the ethos of Twisted. Could you elaborate on what this means in practice for your festival? What are you trying to achieve?
David: That's bang on. Community is at the heart of the festival and simply would not exist without it. We are blessed to have what feels like an endless pool of passionate individuals who put their mahi and their mana into this project year after year. It is a community-lead and run event which ensures that space and influence is given to anyone who would like to contribute.
Connection is the bounty of this hearty mission. The fruits of the labour of the many incredible souls who make up our extended whānau. The scale of potential connections that can occur in the process of building something like this and throughout the event itself is actually mind boggling. When people create together, dance together and spend intentional time in an atmosphere of openness and connection the results are a thriving network that spans generations and underground scenes across the world. At its core THIS is what we are trying to achieve… as well as throw a SICK party.
Culture is the glue that holds it all together. Twisted is just the vessel for the monumental range of incredible creative collectives and humans that bring their own unique magical spark into the valley. Offering a platform to such a diverse range of legends is a crucial aspect to the kaupapa.
And who are you trying to appeal to?
We are appealing to anyone who loves a good boogie and values the three C’s mentioned above.
How does the DIY approach contribute to the feeling of the festival?
If you mean this on a physical level, we have never leaned too heavily into flashy and new stuff aesthetically and we steer well clear of truss and more traditional modern staging. The festival is built from the accumulation of timber over the last ten years and we do our best to reuse everything we can. We prefer to keep colours and materials raw and earthy and stray a little further away from bright and bold pallets/artificial products of any kind to ensure things don't look tacky during the summer sun. In a lot of ways this results in a much more grounded and authentic feeling when you make your way through.
Twisted offers an alternate new years festival to some of the bigger, more mainstream options. Do you see this as an important option for diversifying the festival landscape?
Honestly I think I speak for our entire community when I say underground events are positively ESSENTIAL. They are the soil in which the seeds of countless massive artists grow, alongside all of the other people that make the music industry thrive, finding their niche and learning from the folks who have the oldschool knowledge to share.
It's even fair to say that alternate events are essential for the mainstream festivals too. Many of their headline acts and their best technicians and organisers will undoubtedly have started their journey underground.
The offerings at Twisted extend beyond music. Could you give someone who hasn't been before an idea of what a day could look like?
Absolutely. Despite being billed–and rightfully assumed by many–as just a rager, we host dozens of workshops each day. Mostly mind and body with a lil bit of soul in the mix too. In terms of workshop lineups, we tend to focus on current political issues either global or local. A few keynote speakers on the bill this year are literally heroes in their field: we have Rana who was part of the Sumud Flotilla attempting to bring aid to besieged Gaza and is an all around inspiring activist/artist, as well as a renown conservation and weta expert Danilo Hegg.
We love to lean into SCIENCE and host a number of knowledge-sharing talks on all manner of things, often related to music production.
For the soul we tend to shy away from a lot of more esoteric/wishy washy elements you would find at similar events, but offer daily yoga/movement events often accompanied by unique musical elements.
All day and most of the night our circo arts team are teaching classes and then sharing their skills in the fire circle come nightfall. We also have a now-famous cabaret where community members show off their insane talent. Always a huge hit.
Though the lineup is absolutely stacked with something for everyone, are there any artists on this year's lineup that you're particularly excited about?
Personally I am a hip hop fiend so I'm most pumped for the third return of Tāmaki Makaurau based Brandn Shiraz; this time with top tier producer Caru showcasing their new Garage collab. There are rafts of other exciting acts but rap music has my heart, so I’m also frothing for Sydney-based super crew Who Knows and the homie Will Mclean back in the Cobb with his full band.
As a person who is more across the band scene in Aotearoa, rather than the electronic scene, I’ve noticed a lot more bands that I recognise on the lineup this year. What has prompted this shift?
I think maybe this particular lineup aligns with your taste a little more than usual or you just haven't been watching our live lineups very closely haha. We have hosted an enormous range of live acts from the very beginning from new up and coming acts to well established NZ favourites so I don't think there's been much of a shift. Our lineups vary greatly from year to year across a multitude of styles whilst ensuring we serve a little bit of something for everyone.
Rosa note: I was definitely called out by this and David is right. My perception was actually different to the reality of the music offering and when I went back and properly looked at the lineups over the last few years there were plenty of bands I recognised. Others may think the same as me and I loved being proven wrong.
What’s special about the Cobb Valley?
Nestled right on the edge of the glorious Kahurangi national park, miles from anyone who we might annoy with our relentless electronic music. Stepping into the Cobb feels like stepping back in time. Centered by an enormous steep cliff face, dense native bush, and some of Aotearoa’s oldest rocks (505 million years), it's no surprise that geology in the area features a vast wealth of ancient Cambrian marine fossils.
For many folks who live the big city life, coming to Twisted is one of the few precious times of the year where they can immerse themselves deeply in nature for a solid chunk of time. Swimming in the crystal clear awa that borders the whenua and soaking up that truly awe-striking feeling that us Kiwis are so lucky to be able to experience.
This valley is also stacked with festival history. Infamous in NZ dance party lore, the mighty Gathering Festival found the Cobb as its final resting place. Many other events have come and gone over the years with many more young and enthusiastic crews carrying the torch and taking on the mission of shaking the earth and bringing kanikani spaces to the people.
What’s special about it being over new years?
For some, the end of the year is a moment to reflect on the past, for some it's the chance to celebrate the exciting and uncertain future. For some it is a chance to LET LOOSE and celebrate existence in the here and now with their nearest and dearest and some new friends as well. Running a New Years party requires a delicate balance of acknowledging all three of these elements, but if done right, it can leave people with a lasting sense of energy and satisfaction that they can carry deep into the winter months.
As the festival grows, how does this impact the organisation, vibe and experience of the festival?
There's a lot more admin. A LOT.
My skill sets are much more catered toward working with people and helping them bring their visions to life, and although I begrudgingly have to tangle with what feels like terabytes of spreadsheets, I'm actually pretty allergic to them.
With every year of growth, more and more people are needed to manage all of the different aspects of the event which is difficult when the festival is just scraping by and you want to reward the amazing folks who have put their hats in the ring with far greater paychecks than is possible. The vibe stays the same though; we have held tight onto our roots and despite attendee numbers being much higher than our first few gigs, I believe we have managed to keep that small party feeling but scaled up the experience to one that year after year comes closer to matching some of the MUCH larger, but still very underground international festivals that we admire.
Last year you celebrated your 10 year anniversary, with the 2025-26 festival being year 11. How has Twisted changed over the last decade?
One thing I can say for sure is it certainly has not changed in terms of viability/profit. We are still just managing to hang in there, it feels like the boulder that never makes it to the top of the mountain. Aside from that it has exceeded all expectations and evolved into a well matured piece of Tasman music history. I never would have guessed it the day we opened the gates to our first 600/700 punters. But now in its eleventh year the pride amongst the team for what we have achieved and the happiness we have brought into existence is justifiably huge. The festival is safer, the team is stronger and the party is more smashing than ever.
As we know, the festival and live music landscapes are rapidly changing in Aotearoa and across the world. Have you felt this? Has it changed your approach to running Twisted?
Absolutely. If I'm honest, it has changed how I feel about being able to continue on this mission entirely. With the cost of living deeply affecting our core demographic which is primarily younger folks still making their way in the world and the increasing costs of doing anything at all on this planet, festivals and live music scenes are suffering deeply. My hope is that something shifts and when it does there will still be amazing people poised and ready to breathe life into it again but right now it feels pretty dire.
That being said, the hunger for alternative gatherings–high quality music, weird art and all the things that make Twisted special– has exploded. It feels like there are more crews doing more epic things than ever, more soundsystems being built than there are spaces to crank them and more dedicated fans frothing for the experiences that our community shares a common love for.
Thanks to David for chatting with me! Twisted Frequency is on Dec 30 – Jan 3 in Cobb Valley, Mohua.
They have an awesome website where you can check out the lineup, galleries from past years, and lots of fantastic resources to learn more about Twisted, festival etiquette, harm reduction, the underground scene and more.
You can find them on Instagram here and buy tickets here. See you on the d-floor!
Photos by Leroy Bull, Jackson Harris and Zoe Hart.