What to look forward to

Sneaking into Homegrown is “piss easy”, says student

Brett Kerr-Laurie (he/him)

With just $7, confidence, and a “slay outfit”, one student snuck into Wellington’s Homegrown festival last weekend and is planning to do it again. 19-year-old student, Grace* heard of others who had snuck into Homegrown in the past by forging fake wristbands.

This year, Grace didn’t have a $170 ticket and was “keen for the challenge” of sneaking in.

“I had a couple friends who bought tickets so they told me they would go in first and send me photos of their wristbands. My gameplan was to 100% replicate the wristbands and fire on through.”

Spending only $7 at Look Sharp, she got a pink ribbon, purple highlighter, and black sharpie.

She said the finished product “looked insane”.

After predrinking at her flat, she simply walked into the festival.

“[A security guard] asked for my wristband, I waved it to her, she told me I had a slay outfit on and I walked on through.”

Grace said there was lots of security at the festival, but “fake wristbands was probably the least of their worries”.

At the electronic stage, she saw other non-ticket holders with “shittier wristbands” who had the same idea. One person she met had picked up a broken fake band off the ground and stuck it together with chewing gum. Grace said she enjoyed her experience, but only because she didn’t pay $170 for a ticket. She advised others to “sneak in or don’t go at all” and plans to do the same thing next year.

Homegrown justifies their high price by supplying five different genrebased stages and an abundance of New Zealand artists across Wellington’s waterfront.

The 2023 line up featured sir Dave Dobbyn, Katchafire, SACHI, Lee Mvthews, and Flowidus, among 40 others.

Third year Massey Design students Ruby Noton, Sophie Dyball and Abby Fox all purchased tickets.

Noton felt “ripped off” when she saw how many people had snuck in.

“It sucks to see people get in for free when we pay for tickets”, she said. Dyball said, “It makes me not want to buy a homegrown ticket again for next year since it’s so easy to get in without one.”

Fox said the festival “should just be a free event since half the people don’t pay.”

Homegrown states on their website: “If you are found with a fake or copied wristband [you] will be handed over to the police. Homegrown will treat all offenses like fraud and will prosecute accordingly.”

However, it appears this warning is the only thing they rely on to stop such fraud.

*Names have been changed for anonymity

Cleaner of over 20 years left underpaid by University

Sammy Carter (she/her)

A cleaner at Massey for 20 years and living in a household of 10, Sina Vaeau says, “I’d be happy if I get more money so I can buy something for myself.”

Massey University has contracted OCS Group for over a decade, but is yet to pay cleaners a living wage.

Vaeau has to budget tightly, renting a house with her family and splitting the cost of rent and bills.

On a wage just above the minimum at $21.50 per hour, she had enough for $100 worth of food each week, which only lasted two days in such a large household.

“I never spent anything for myself, but I really want my kids not to be hungry.

“I’m always helping them, if they need any money.”

With her grandkids, kids and partners living in the house, the electricity bill could get up to $400.

Originally from Samoa, Vaeau hasn’t been back since 1969. “I’m glad if I get more money so I can buy the house, take my kids to Samoa and we have a nice holiday.”

Her sisters and their kids still live in Samoa, “We keep sending money to them to help. I always help them.” After having a heart attack two years ago, Vaeau had to leave her second job.

She got a job as a cleaner 20 years ago so she could work at night and look after her kids during the day.

When she first started, she said her pay was $9 an hour, “When we were on $9can’t get anything, because it’s low pay.” She said if she were on living wage she could save up and buy the house she had rented for two years.

The Living wage of $23.65 per hour is calculated to provide workers and their families with basic necessities and to live with dignity, participating in society.

Vaeau came to New Zealand alone at 17 years old to make money to send back to her Mum and Dad in Samoa. She got a job at the Wellington wharf as a tea lady. Despite the pay, Vaeau loves to work, “I really want to stay here, I don’t want to go anywhere else.” Vaeau is the longest running cleaner working at Massey Wellington, working there for eight years before OCS took over.

Shane Pasene from E tū represents underpaid workers like Vaeau. He sat with her while she shared her story, saying both Massey and OCS were at fault.

“They (OCS) won’t pay the living wage until the client, which is Massey, will pay them. They’re not gonna reach into their pockets and pay the living wage.”

Shane said when choosing a cleaning company, “they’ll go for the cheapest one because it’s financially better for Massey.” He said when tendering for contracts, commercial cleaning companies generally undercut each other – what he called “the race to the bottom”.

OCS’ international turnover in 2021 was more than 1.7 billion nzd, however, Shane said many companies “plead poverty” when bargaining for pay rises.

“There’s no money to go back to Samoa or to buy that house, but with the living wage it makes it a little bit easier to survive. There’s always gonna be a struggle.”

A Massey University spokesperson said, “The university does not set the pay rates.” They said primary cleaners are employed through a national contract with commercial cleaning company OCS.

“We value and respect all of our contractors and they are treated as part of the wider Massey team.”

On the 15th of March, Living Wage NZ held an event at Victoria University with the goal of making it the first living wage university. Speakers from the living wage movement shared stories about cleaners like Vaeau, many not visiting their home countries in years.

Rebecca Matthews, Wellington councillor described pay under living wage as “poverty wages”.

She said, “They have no excuse … They should be ashamed.”

She was disgusted and appalled that large establishments would pay workers below living wage.

“All of our universities in Aotearoa continue to get away with it.”

OCS group was asked for comment but could not provide a response.

Tegan Jaggard (she/her)

“Okay, this is a shithole,” Isaac Coneybeer describes his thoughts from when he moved into the Wellington flat a year ago.

The landlord came for an inspection only two days after Coneybeer had moved in.

Coneybeer said, “He went on to complain about the state of my room and how he hadn’t checked it before I moved in, despite that being his responsibility not ours.”

“He tried to blame me for the damage on the walls which not only predates me but predates any tenants in this flat.”

By the time the next inspection came around in January of this year, Coneybeer was the only tenant home. Despite all the tenants having cleaned all week, the landlord found it appropriate to ask Isaac, “You have a girlfriend right? Why doesn’t she teach you how to clean?”

“He found it so funny that he had to repeat it to my flatmates when they got home and acted like I wasn’t still there.”

After the inspection they received an email saying that they were paying under the median rent for the area and that he wanted to raise the price but wouldn’t if they painted the house.

“We’re actually paying over the median rent for our suburb, he was pricing us for the neighbouring one,” Coneybeer said.

“One of my flatmate’s dads used to be a property manager so we knew what he was asking wasn’t legal. Not only is it illegal but it’s really rude.”

Another flatmate, Stu, and his dad sat down all night and wrote an email combatting the increase in rent and painting the house for free.

After the landlord realised his tenants knew their rights, he backed down and then offered to pay them to paint the house, but it’s not the happiest of endings.

“I know a lot of people that had their landlords paint the house and they didn’t have to pay rent while it happened, not only are we paying rent but we’re painting the house for way below what we deserve to be paid.”

Students scramble for DJ Hedex’s first Wellington gig

Brett Kerr-Laurie (he/him)

Students refreshed their phones over and over hoping to get tickets for drum and bass DJ Hedex’s show in Wellington, a performance Coastal Promotions called their “biggest club show of the year”.

DJing at Meow on the 30th of March, Hedex sold all early bird, first, second and final release tickets in 60 seconds, prompting the promoters to add “additional release” tickets.

Hedex has topped drum and bass charts with his 2022 remixes of ‘Spinning Method’ and ‘Move Your

Body’, and dominates social media with clips of unreleased tracks. Third year communications major Karis Musson was refreshing the Ticket Fairy website with her three flatmates minutes before the sale started.

Musson said, “I put four [early bird tickets] in my cart and filled out all of the details for the ticket holders, but when I got to payment it said they were sold out.”

She quickly repeated the process for the rest of the tickets but was told the same thing at each checkout.

Later seeing $55 additional release tickets, the flat decided they couldn’t justify it compared to the $15 early birds.

“We would’ve loved to go, and we do love Hedex’s tracks - but we are broke uni students.”

Earlier this month, the 23-year-old DJ performed in Belgium at Rampage, the world’s biggest drum and bass festival. Victoria University first year Marijn Lenoir and his six friends had a similar experience to Musson’s flat.

Lenoir said, “We had the ticket buyer open on our phones and were watching the countdown … as soon as it got to zero we all clicked on early bird, but none of us got it.”

“We tried first release, and it didn’t work for anyone, same with second. Finally, we were able to get final release.” However, some people aren’t going due to the venue size.

Plumber and DJ enthusiast James Harvey was “pretty disappointed” and decided not to go when he heard Hedex was performing at Meow.

“It’s a small venue and he’s a big DJ,” Harvey said.

“If he was on a Saturday at Shed 6, I’d definitely be going, and I can say that for all 11 of us at my flat.”

Clay Drysdale, Victoria University third year, agrees with Harvey.

“He’s a big UK artist, he should be playing at Shed 6 or something … Meow is ok, but for a guy like Hedex it’s not a go,” Drysdale said. With less than 30 additional release tickets remaining, it’s bound to be a big night regardless of the small venue.