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The A to Z of Rhythm and Vines

Here are our highlights of the music festival in Gisborne that is first to see the sun to the sounds of Carl Cox and many more, yes it's the A-Z of Rhythm & Vines 2008.

A is for… AWOP stands for Another Way Of Paying; the plastic debit cards you load with money and then use throughout festival to pay for food and drink. They cost $5 non refundable to purchase.

B- Bottle swap. Bringing back the days of money-for-cans, the bottle swap tent paid $2 credit onto your AWOP card for every bottle that punters brought back, leading to bottle scroungers looking for empties to exchange into more beer funds.

C - Cut Copy from Melbourne were brilliant. Their black and white CUT COPY tee shirts were the coolest merchandise there.

C - Carl Cox playing after the New Years Eve countdown

C - Cellar stage. Set amongst trees on a slope the Cellar stage went off on New Years Eve with P-Money playing to so many people you couldn't squeeze down the tracks to get in.
Below, Cellar during a daytime set with people dancing among the trees.

D - The Datsuns (below) were one of our favourite Kiwi rock bands and played right before Shihad on New Years eve.

E - Entertainers ranged from stiltwalkers, acrobats, fireballs at new years and even a crazy electricity-spouting man; the festival entertainers contributed a colourful visual aspect to the aural one.

F- The "F*ck George Bush" chant at Public Enemy lead by Flavor Flav, Chuck D and a crowd of thousands.

F - Franz Ferdinand - totally blew everyone away

G - Grrrls Rock- women singers in Fur Patrol (below), Ladi 6 and Anika Moa

H - Hammocks along the hillside.

I - Illuminated dancers in black costumes with glow stick-esque patterns, last seen at World of Wearable Arts.

J - Jagermeister stage played host to beats from Trash Disco, Brazilbeat Soundsystem, Cool Kids Club, Public Access and many more with a bar selling Jagermeister cocktails.

K - The Kooks from Brighton England

L - Litter patrol, below, enjoying the acts

M – Mounties. The security site staff on horseback who rode around like cowboys.

N- New Years. First in the world to see the sunrise on new year’s day, photographers captured the definitive image to show the first images of 2009 in the world, live from Gisborne.

O- On site camping. For the first time at R&V you could pay $140 to stay on site rather than bus in from BW Campsite in Gisborne. Luxury tent sites were available at a premium.
Pictured below, The Kiwi Camp Co. Campground where you bring your own tent.

P- Proposal. A British guy was called on stage by the MC on day one and he got his Kiwi girlfriend on stage and proposed. She said yes.

Q - Queues, for entry (below), for drinks, for toilets, to buy AWOP credits...everyone required a good deal of patience. If you lack this particular virtue, buying an upgrade to a VIP pass which lets you into an area on the hillside right of mainstage gets you less queues for drinks and toilets with dedicated VIP facilities.

R – Rain. We’d love to say "Rhythm" but "R" has to go to the rain. But it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd, no pun intended, on Day 1, as you can see at Franz Ferdinand's crowd below.

S- Shihad rocked the Rhythm mainstage taking the audience up to the countdown at midnight.

S - Sunset. The last sunset of 2008 as seen over the hills of Gisborne, just stunning.

S - Smurfs!

T - Tiedye, the festival classic, makes a comeback with his and hers outfits.

U - Underwhelmed - the fashion stalls and food stalls left a lot to be desired, with very standard fare of chips, hot dogs and pizza. One exception was the BBQ chicken wraps ($10) in the VIP area. Other festivals (e.g. Groove in the Park) have had great ethnic food carts. It would also be nice to see locally-made fashion, as seen at Parachute festival, Grey Lynn festival and at Aotea Markets, instead of all the imported tees and cheap dresses.

V – The Vixens. Again, it could have been Vines but the five sexy dancers are a whole lot cuter than rows of grapes A special mention also for the VIP area, where for a premium price you can get great views of the main stage from your leather sofa next to the Montana lounge bar. Below, two of The Vixens dressed in military uniforms with a burlesque dancer in pink, hostessing the VIP area.

W - Watering Can showers. Cold showers are no fun but the setting was creative; watering cans rigged up amongst the grapevines which may now have a shampoo-tasting vintage. You had to wear your togs in the shared showers, like these girls below, who are having a drink in the vines (well we couldn't exactly take a photo in the showers now could we?)