Couldn’t of asked for a more beautiful day on Wellington’s waterfront. You could feel the air brimming with excitement and anticipation for a day of Aotearoa music at Jim Beam Homegrown.

Sold out and extremely popular - I headed along to see what the fuss was all about. The pavement was scorching and the sea was a dark crystal blue, and some punters couldn’t help themselves and started jumping off the wharf into the harbour, fully clothed.

Girls screaming as they fulfilled dares by passers-by. Trains and buses were packed with out of towner's and Cuba street was going off, all cafes, shops and bars getting a healthy dose of open wallets and purses, drinks being brought for friends and cut off denim short shorts being sold by the hoards.

My Homegrown cherry was plucked as I walked into the Vodafone Dub and Roots stage, surrounded by a sea of people all singing and dancing to 1814 - a dub/roots reggae band that took up the whole stage - backup singers and all. Catchy lyrics and a reggae beat that was so easy to dance to, and making it even more nicer to boogie, the marquee had a lush grass floor that felt heavenly under dancing feet.

Most of all the stages were held in huge marquees and quite spread out, so there was a flow of walking, skipping and running people, yelling, hugging and screaming left right and centre. There were never any boring bits and no one seemed to mind the walking distances. Next up I headed over to the Pop/ RnB tent where Homebrew were playing, known for their cheeky rapping about everyday NZ life, politics, welfare, drinking and drugs, reaching out to an audience who related by punching one arm in the air with a beer in the other. The MC's were taking up the whole stage with their mad rhymes; grooving back beats with eight people on stage including a DJ.

Cruised back over to the Dub tent and found a more older and more subtle crowd getting down to Sola Rosa. I’m always highly impressed by these guys, they are so tight and their sound is like no other. Their normal front-line singer Iva Lamkum was missing but filling her shoes was L.A Mitchell, and man did she do it well! Her voice was strong and fitting to the music as she grooved all over the stage. Ran over to the Electronic tent and caught the last 10 minutes of MayaVanya, two sisters from Auckland who produce and DJ music, with MC Silva on the mic. Wicked mix of breaks, house and techno.

Hit up Mac’s Brewbar for free ciders and talked to some punters who thought Homegrown was a unique NZ experience and they loved the good happy buzz everyone was on. Then we missioned to the Rock stage inside the TSB arena - it was like entering a cave - the floor was covered in black plastic. To set the mood The Checks were playing a melodic catchy set that ticked all the right boxes in front of a small crowd of admirers. People were chilling out up in the bleachers taking in the atmosphere while I was taking in the impressive array of amps.

Christchurch's own Ahoribuzz was laying down best guitar riffs in the Red Bull Lab ending the set with a medley of 'Another brick in the wall', 'Foxy Lady' and 'Psycho Killer'. The most entertaining band hands down. Checked out some break dancers on the way to see 'The Black Seeds' who had the audience yelling along with them “When we say black, you say seeds”.

The sound of everyone yelling “seeds” was almost deafening and they performed a great mash up of different tracks from their albums. It’s hard to get around to every single act at Homegrown but we tried our best, suffered sore feet, tired ears and a touch of sunburn but finished off the night with some good old Fat Freddies Drop, amazing as usual.

By Charlotte Crocker

Check out our Homegrown photo album!