Was the government picking winners as our local event scene suffered? w/ DJ and industry advocate Rob Warner

95bFM: The Wire · Sep 22, 2026

The economic crunch has hit the local events sector hard. Over this government's term, the festival scene saw many final appearances of world renowned events that put Aotearoa New Zealand on the map, not least being Splore. But while our local festivals and gigs largely bore the consequences of increasing costs and decreasing sales alone, international competitors who provided large concerts often received funding from the government under a new scheme, the Major Events and Tourism package. This generated a host of criticism at the time, but this week we found out it had also gone against…