A doof doof to remember: 121 Festival

By Dana Whale (she/her)

There are many festivals that we all know and love, and then there is the121 festival. In hindsight, there aren’t any other festivals in New Zealand that quite capture the space and energy that 121 brought, it was incomparable. A 3-day dance odyssey, an all-encompassing vibe of art, music, wellness, nature, food, and drink, and boy— did it deliver just that.

We got up bright and early on the Friday morning of the first day of the festival, anxiously checking the weather forecast and hoping for clear skies. We ditched all responsibilities and likely overdue uni work for the weekend, packed our bags, and commuted an hour out of what was a miserable rainy Wellington day to a serene and sunny Wairarapa. We arrived at the Tauherenikau Racecourse amongst other excited festival goers, itching to get inside and see what it was all about.

121 festival couldn’t have come at a better time. After drastic weather events happening across the nation and multiple festivals and events being cancelled from flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle, to the festival itself being pushed back two years due to Covid’s obstacles and restrictions, it was safe to say there was a visible buzz of excitement throughout the air. After two long years, everyone was thrilled to come together and escape the reality of these recent hardships, leave all life stresses behind, and dance the weekend away.

Upon entering, we were struck foremost by the stunning ancient kahikatea trees surrounding the grounds, decked out with fairy lights amongst a variety of art installations set up by local artists. We trekked down the long track,lugging our 20-dollar Warehouse tents, and set up camp. The set-up of the festival came with many vendors and stalls, interactive light installations that proved to be more entertaining to us later on in the night, a narrow concrete bunker stage known as the ‘dance tunnel’ with a deafening sound system, and even a wellness area complete with hammocks and little sit-down areas away from the madness of the festival, where yoga and meditation sessions ran throughout the day. It felt like we were in a wee fairy-tale utopia wellness retreat for the weekend.

121’s diverse line-up combined global artists from Europe and afar with local familiar talent from New Zealand. On Friday we started off the evening by catching NZ’s Advantdale Bowling Club, to then seeing UK electronic duo Overmono play 90’s rave-induced anthemic techno sounds. After enjoying Irish DJ Kettama’s set of jacking house beats and messing about with games of Jenga and said light installations into the early morning, we wandered back to our campsite excited for the next day’s programme ahead of us.

On very little sleep, we awoke on Saturday and shocked our hangovers away with a cold swim in a river out of Carterton. Saturday’s line-up was massive. We began the night rushing to the dance tunnel to find a good spot for UK garage DJ Interplanetary Criminal’s set, followed by Danish DJ Main phase, to then running to join the crowd at the neighbouring Odyssey stage to see Berlin-based duo FJAAK, and ending the night with some hyper-trance techno provided by German duo DJ Heartstring. The crowds were embellished with unhinged make-shift ‘doof sticks’, bedazzled with fairy lights and silly inflatables, many being horse-related for some odd reason.

We packed our tents and left on the Sunday, saddened to return back to normal reality. It is safe to say, after three days of dancing, drinking, not sleeping, driving, more dancing, some yoga, and messing about with friends, 121 festival felt like a healing reminder of the true essence of community, friendship and art. I think that festivals are all about finding yourself in an alternate, temporary reality, and I left 121 festival fully in the thrall of the slice of paradise that it was.