Two Steps Forward: TWOMINDS FESTIVAL 2026
Flynn Robson took on TWOMINDS FESTIVAL 2026 along with Sam Elliott, Kitty Jacob, and Sonny Eades.
“We have to ask for a little bit of trust, because once you are there, you will know.” These were the words of Corban Tupou as I was sat alongside Dan Stewart at Corban’s family home in the semi-coastal suburb of Mt Pleasant. It was 2023, and was interviewing the brains behind Twominds three weeks out from their inaugural festival. Over the preceding years the former University of Canterbury students had grown their house music appreciation society into a fully formed dance facilitating collective. In Christchurch, Twominds had a cult following. The collective was synonymous with nights at Flux — The totemic nightclub built to bridge the gap in nightlife post-Covid-19. The inaugural Twominds festival lived up to Dan and Corban’s promises, with a plethora of fun on offer; disc golf, arts and crafts, and the brilliant stage decor that I’d come to expect from any Twominds gig. I remember having the feeling of being early to a really good thing. We had caught a glimpse of the vision for the future, for a full service dance experience, and three years on Sam and I we were on our way back to see if they had seen that vision through.
A self-contained universe is what separates a festival from a lineup. The goal is full immersion. Twominds Festival is intertwined with its location, Spencer Beach TOP 10 Holiday Park. Situated twenty minutes from the garden city CDB, this is one holiday park that would actually make an objective top ten. It seems distance breeds perspective not just for me but also for the festival team. The team have spent some time away from Aotearoa exploring what a festival can be with an open mind. It’s something you notice the moment you walk through the gates. There is a festival culture present in the design, decoration, programming not normally seen on these shores. I remember back in 2023 Dan and Corban waxing lyrical about the site’s potential. And rightly so. As we arrived, we were greeted by a friendly crew as full carpools funnelled into the bustling site. Returning to the festival 3 years later, much had changed. As we made our way through to the campground, I had to stop myself from exclaiming how much the festival site had grown. I felt like your parent’s friend, who hadn’t seen you since you were a child. The campsite is nestled within a 70ha pine forest, and flanked on one side by Spencer Beach. On site are a number of cabins, and blocks of permanent bathrooms with flushable toilets, and ample room for tent-pitching.
The stages: Flux, Treehouse, and Terrarium remained, but added to their ranks was the immersive Forest stage, expansive Beach stage, and rave den the Lodge.
The thoughtfully-appointed Forest Stage
After we set up camp along the perimeter of site, Sam and I ventured over to ‘Terrarium’ to catch some tunes. Each stage was adorned with decorations to build a sense of place to each of the stages. It's been a throughline you can trace through the entire Twominds whakapapa, back to their earliest parties; one that is built on generosity. Most decorations are handmade, and decorators are volunteers. So much of the festival is still made possible thanks to the gifted time of the Ōtautahi music community. First up was the George FM combination of Beccie B and Sin. I captured a couple snaps, and then pulled into the wings of the stage to have a quick chat with Beccie. Beccie B was on the very first lineup of Twominds Festival, she curated a selection of Femme and Non-binary DJs for Flux stage. It was from back in a time in her life before George FM, when Beccie was a key part of the cottage industry that kept the Ōtautahi electronic scene thriving. There is an intimacy to the Ōtautahi dance music scene that means you get to know all the acts and how they fit together in a larger ecosystem. We then threw our gaze over to Sin, who was busting down on the decks, a huge smile lapping the edges of her face. You could tell that she was enjoying herself, playing tunes she truly enjoyed, to a crowd she knew would love it. I made my way back down to Sam who was waiting in the crowd for me, as the festival welcome was beginning.
The Festival Welcome at Terrarium
The welcome was a line that bisected the day one schedule. Festivals are a funny thing, as people are often on their own schedule. From the time they intend to arrive, to the acts they intend to see, to the time they decide to hit the hay; it's a punter’s version of choose your own adventure. But here, there was a true sense of beginning. The welcome from mana whenua did start out trepidatious—I mean, what are you meant to say to a couple hundred people in your backyard, already with drinks in hand? But after the conch shell was sounded, and the speeches were warmed into, there was a feeling that the scene was being set for a great time, one that was built on the mutual understanding and respect for the people who would be occupying the site, and for those who were hosting.
DJ Tessa Hills, better known as Messie, has grown to become one of the most prolific names in the New Zealand electronic music scene. Plucked from relative obscurity by British phenomenon, Fred Again, her divine ascension to national stardom has felt almost prewritten. Messie is a hell of a performer, known as much for her energy and stamina on stage as her prowess as a selecta. Messie hit the stage with her renown energy. A fierce BPM of danceable tunes, tastefully collated from a no doubt stacked recordbox library.
The sun was starting to set and I was keen to catch the vibe of the Flux stage. Closing in 2025, Flux lives long in the memory of the Christchurch dance community. For acts like Paige Julia and Truth, it's a stage that is beautifully sentimental and reflective of their career. Side of stage was who’s-who of flux faces. Looking around the fenceline I spotted photographer Spike, media mate Kate, and Flux co-owner and stage manager Fin McCall. Half Queen, like myself was returning to Twominds Festival, having been on the lineup for the inaugural event. The Flux stage that Shaq had last played at was no longer recognisable. Gone was the sparsely splattered green courtyard, replaced by the industrial jungle of shipping containers and wire fence. Half Queen braced the stage in singlet that read ‘cult leader’. It’s a title that aptly reflects their status as a leader within New Zealand's dance scene.
Sam and I made our way back to the media tent, the ringing of Flux still in our ears. There was a constant buzz as photographers and videographers popped in and out. Australian videographers, Isaac and Liam were noticeably omnipresent across the site. I got chatting with Liam who said he had hit it off with Dan Stewart on the festival circuit across the Tasman, and had convinced them to cover the festival. Having only just wrapped work on Pitch Music and Arts Festival, they jumped straight on the plane to Christchurch the next day. It was a tale that on the face of things seemed serendipitous but on a deeper level reflected the human-focus ethos of the festival founders. The media tent soon started to clear out. I had wondered when reading the day one line-up, about ‘Marketing Team OOO’. In an era of obscure DJ names, the thought didn’t evade me that this could be a hot new international DJ that had yet to hear about. They seemed to be playing a prime slot at the treehouse, so Sam and I followed the team in hot pursuit. When we arrived, we were greeted with sweet surprise to a B2B paring of Liam Donnelly and Kate Weith. It was obvious on reflection, Liam and Kate – two members of the marketing team – are both DJ’s in their own rights, throwing down under Donna Lee and Kravis respectively. The two marketing mavericks, settled into a grove and built up some steam, until almost the entire media tent was up on stage, boogying their hearts out to the set.
I awoke on Saturday to the heat rising to a sizzle in my nylon tent. Popping open the fly, I spied a flurry of activity stretching across the expansive camping area. Unlike many multi-day gigs, campers hung around on Saturday morning to soak in the atmosphere. It was easy to forget that the centre of Ōtautahi, the country’s second-biggest city, was a mere twenty-minute jaunt down the road. It didn’t seem as if many people made the short trip home. In the distance was a trail of tog clad soldiers, making their way out the gates and towards the pines. I had yet to venture to the actual beach, and the weather was such I was gasping for a swim. I passed a steady stream of scantily clad tanned bodies as I arrived. Half Queen had wrapped an hour-long guided yoga class, and was now being replaced by local ice cream parlour Rolickin’, who were posting up their wheeled cart.
Festival punters warm up for the day on Spencer Beach
As midday ticked by, other stages got up and running. I met back up with Sam after catching Amber Carly Williams’ beautiful 1PM set at Treehouse stage. We ran into her not long afterwards. “It feels the people came equally for the music and the atmosphere,” Amber opined to us. “People want to be here and watch the music, the earlier acts too. There are a lot of festivals where people just won’t come out early. That’s the benefit of people staying here. They come and watch the earlier acts, or even just listen from the campground.” Sam and I couldn’t agree more. Twominds feels more like a weekend-long experience than it does two big afternoons of music.
After chatting to Amber, we wandered over to Terrarium to catch Geneva AM playing alongside AJ Honeysuckle. Clad in a veil, Tino Rangatira flag draped over her shoulder, Geneva played an awe-inducing set. They were followed by Casual Healing who showcased a masterclass in crowd interaction, and by the time Tom Scott hit Terrarium, the crowd was bulging left and right. Scott brought with him to the stage a full band and chorus, and a swagger and a confidence of a man at the top of his game. He charmed the crowd between crooning songs from his latest album Anitya, sneaking in tracking from @peace and Homebrew to bring the house down.
Top Left: Amber Carly Williams, Top Right: Shaun Malloch
Bottom Left: Tom Scott, Bottom Right: Geneva AM
As Sam and I popped in to the media tent, we spied the arrival of Christopher Tubbs and Eden Burns. Exchanging pleasantries, we got chatting with the pair about their set. They were in agreement that this was one of their favourite festivals on the circuit today, and were excited to get the rare opportunity to play together. Eden mentioned he was keen to see Craigslist hit the Treehouse after them, and I knew Chris had high praise for CC:Disco! Considering the talent that was spread across the stages this evening, it would take some logistics to catch all that was on offer.
Before we could catch Burns and Tubbs, we first had to stop into the Forest. The Forest was a world within a world. Fergus aka Goose, had been the tasked with curating a pocket universe that could keep you creatively indulged over the entire duration. Sam and I had made sure to drift in and out, to lounge during the day and to revel in the lights and lasers at night. Nestled within the pines, there was wholesome seclusion to the stage, as though it could have been a singular event on its own, and to some of the residents it might have felt that way.
View from the booth at Forest
We made our way back to Treehouse, just as Eden and Chris were taking stage. Squeezing past the security, we took up prime viewing just side of stage. Burns and Tubbs is a wonderful juxtaposition of characters. Eden Burns, decades Tubbs’s junior is a stylish technocrat on the decks with Chris his groovy foil. I had learned a lot interviewing the two in an earlier Issue of Newzician, and felt honoured to watch them work their magic. Just as Eden was lighting up a cigarette on decks, stage manager Matt McPhee introduced himself to us. Matt is a veteran of the scene, and had journeyed to last year’s festival on a whim. Impressed by the Kaupapa, and seduced by the ambitious young fellas behind it, Matt offered to man a stage come 2026. Matt was equally enamoured by the dynamic duo, but when I mentioned we had thought about heading across the way to CC:Disco! Matt implored us to go check his Aussie compatriot out.
Burns and Tubbs at Treehouse
We arrived at Flux Stage to an exhilarating atmosphere. CC:Disco! understood the dance floor as a religion, and the crowd was evangelical. Odd men in suits offered punters chances to gamble on schoolyard games or play hungry hippos. It was whacky and wonderful, It was flux on a great night. There was a mastery on display that Tubbs had foretold and the doof sticks danced along bobbing and weaving atop an energetic crowd. We turned back for the treehouse after overdosing on an addictive mix of Great Southern Land.
We found our spot again just as Craigslist Sound System were finishing up. It felt apt that these two would be the ones to play the Twominds boys onto stage. Dan and Corban are based further afield now, and it was Craigslist who had been holding down the fort in their absence. For Twominds, it was cutting their teeth through club nights and flat parties that led to the festival becoming possible, and it felt like with Craigslist they were anointing the next class.
Twominds: Dan and Corban
Standing on the side of the stage, as Dan and Corban walked on stage, the periphery was splattered with an array of faces. There are artists who had played earlier, come to pay respect to the festival organisers, family members young and old beaming with pride, and a host of other faces that I can only imagine are friends looking with connections brimming with admiration of their peeps who dared to dream. Corban and Dan spoke as Stage manager Matt attended the CDJs. They thanked the crew that had played such an integral part in bringing the festival to life, then they brought it back to where it all started. “let’s play some good tunes and have a lot of fun,” Corban announced, before bringing the house down with a mix of Everybody Wants to Rule the World. It is a young person's song — full of ambition and longing and the terrifying freedom of possibility played by two people who quietly, patiently, went and did exactly that. From the scrappy dream of flat parties and good tunes to something real on their own terms, in their own city. There is huge joy, but also relief, for all those in the wings wondering “did all of that hard work, all those years, actually mean something?”. The resounding answer, it means everything.. It's the specific pride of a community watching two of its own become who they always had the potential to be. Growing up in public means being watched while you figure it out. The festival wasn’t without its challenges, but those were tackled with the passion and commitment that makes this Kaupapa. There was no problem this team couldn't solve when they put their minds to it.
With success comes the pressure to follow it up. What will a festival with three thousand more punters look like? how will the site adapt? and can the festival maintain its Kaupapa throughout it all? These are important questions, but they are questions for another day. They aren’t to be compared to other New Zealand festivals, they aren’t looking to do what they are doing, they want to be at the cutting edge of culture. They have tried to discover and then refine, in their own way, what New Zealand looks like when it dances.
Photos by:
Sam Elliott (@samm_elliottt)
Flynn Robson (@filmrobson)
Kitty Jacob (@kittyjacobb)
Sonny Eades (@sonny.eades)