Interview: Eyegum Music Collective - Great Sounds Great 2026 Festival

Always an ambitious music and arts extravaganza, Eyegum Music Collective have expanded their scope even more for Great Sounds Great 2026. Threading throughout multiple venue spaces in Te Whanganui-a-Tara's central city on 5th September — including the new large-scale capacity addition of Meow Nui — the already super-stacked festival will be preceded for the first time by the The Night Before, an official mini-fest 'warmer' spotlighting even more rising local talents in Newtown.

Curated with care, this year's lineup includes such major local figures as Bic Runga, Beastwars, MOKOTRON, Amamelia, Pitch Black, MĀ, Office Dog, Savage (DJ Set), Silicon, So So Modern, Soft Bait, Hemi Hemingway, DJ Tamatha Paul, special guest from Japan DEATHRO, plus many more. We chatted with Eyegum's Ben Jones, who gave us the skinny on how Great Sounds Great has grown and evolved, and tips on what to look out for at the fest...

The Night Before (Great Sounds Great)
Newtown Multi-Venue Warmer
Featuring... Bone Chapel, Boy Band, Bug Michigan, Dale Kerrigan, Dillon Jo, Elly Mae, Felix Bird, Girls Factory, Nameless and Brainless, Re:Ruby, The Muscle, Yawner
Friday 4th September - Moon / Office Bar / Newtown Community Centre, Wellington
Tickets on sale HERE via UTR

Great Sounds Great 2026
Featuring... Amamelia, Beastwars, Bic Runga, Bri Louise, Chris Tse, Crook, Cruelly, Dani Yourukova, Deathro (JPN), Dream Chambers, Fazed on a Pony, Groove Council, Hemi Hemingway, Hihi & The Stitchbirds, Hunter Jackson, In Good Company, Jackson McCarthy, JELL, Ludus b2b Rizzo, MĀ, Mauri Aura, mHz, Mokotron, More Blue Noise, Naakz & Babyzoot, Office Dog, Pearly*, Pitch Black, Savage (DJ Set), Savagehine, Sheeps, Silicon, So So Modern, Soft Bait, Tamatha Paul, The Sour, The Spectre Collective: Live-Scored Cinema, Tūi Band, Unsanitary Napkin

Saturday 5th September - Te Aro, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington (3pm start)
Meow Nui, San Fran, Meow, Valhalla, Rogue & Vagabond, Bedlam & Squalor, Hotel Bristol, St Peter's on Willis, Flying Nun Records, 13 Garrett St, Tonic Travelling Stage
Tickets on sale via eyegum.co.nz

Chris Cudby: Congratulations on a phenomenal lineup for Great Sounds Great 2026! Did you have a specific overall vision or aim in mind, when you started assembling this year's lineup?

Ben Jones: We always want to be trying to grow and expand the festival, including the lineup, which we think we've managed to do with this year's programme. Overall, we aim to curate something that is exciting, eclectic, appeals to a broad audience, and celebrates the best of Aotearoa music. We also had some specific aims for different venues, for example having some bigger name headliners at Meow Nui and artists performing at St Peters church that would suit that uniquely beautiful space.

Are there any artists performing this year you've always wanted to host for Great Sounds Great?

So many of the artists on the lineup we are so stoked to be hosting and have been on our wish list for a long time. Looking back at where Eyegum has come from, hosting bona fide national treasures like Bic Runga and Savage still feels unreal. We are really excited to feature some local Pōneke legends like Beastwars and So So Modern, and we are so grateful to our friends at Tonic Collective for bringing Pitch Black to the festival for a special 30th anniversary set.

There's the new The Night Before multi-venue warmer in Newtown, and of course the large-scale addition of Meow Nui as a venue space. Why the decision to expand the festival, even more than previous years?

As I said, we're always thinking of ways to grow the festival in exciting but sustainable ways that make sense within the kaupapa of the event. Ever since Meow Nui opened we've wanted to find a way to incorporate it into our roster of venues, and this seemed like the right year after we sold out tickets in 2025. It allows us to increase our capacity significantly and gives us to opportunity to book some of those bigger acts. The Night Before is something we've talked about for a while, in that we have wanted to find a way to include Newtown venues and spaces, which are so important to the local scene. It also gives us a great platform to showcase the young up-and-coming bands that are the mainstay of our weekly Eyegum Wednesday shows at San Fran, and to offer a more affordable mini-fest option for punters.

There's a poetry component to Great Sounds Great too. Is this a dynamic particular to live culture in Te Whanganui-a-Tara?

Perhaps, it's definitely something Eyegum has been doing for a while, programming across different art forms, particular with live poetry. We are fortunate to have an abundance of amazing poets in Te Whanganui-a-Tara and we've found that the cross-pollination of scenes is always mutually beneficial and exciting for audiences.

Can you please outline how "the hotdog is made" for putting together such a large scale, multi-venue festival? What are the steps involved, from confirming the festival is on this year, to locking in artists and venues? How much of the year does this process take up?

We have a pretty locked in process now and we're normally working on it for 9-10 months of the year. It starts with confirming a date with venues and coming up with draft lineup ideas. We then try and have the lineup mostly locked in 5-6 months to go before getting ready to launch. Once we go live, we switch into marketing mode to try and get as many people aware of the festival as possible as well as making sure all the logistical and operational elements are in place. We are fortunate to have an amazingly talented and passionate team, and a local community, including venues, artists and other partners, who are all so supportive of the festival and this mahi.

How large of a team is working on Great Sounds Great — both putting it together and on the nights? Are there many volunteers involved?

We have an organisational team of around 12-15 people, who all contribute to range of roles and aspects of the behind-the-scenes work in the lead up to the event. On the day, this grows to include technicians, stage managers, and volunteers, of which we have about 50 across the two nights.

What other projects are on the go for Eyegum right now / in the near future? 

Our weekly free Eyegum Wednesdays at San Fran are our other main project, which have been going for 10 years with 40-odd shows a year. We also have other more sporadic things that we have in the pipeline such as our national Scenic Tours, hosting a stage at CubaDupa, and other one-off gigs. We have other bigger projects planned for the future which we're excited about but aren't ready to reveal just yet.

What has Eyegum's core mission been over more than a decade now? Can you identify any significant challenges / cultural shifts which have arisen in Aotearoa, during that time?

Our mission has been to provide spaces and opportunities for live music and art to happen in our city and around the motu that respond to the needs of our community. That has included a range of projects from putting on house party gigs when other venues have closed, to organising festivals that celebrate the sort of independent alternative artists we love.

There have been / are a number of different challenges the scene has faced over this time, although perhaps the financial difficulties of the past few years have been the most critical. We've been no stranger to these, particularly with our previous festival Welcome to Nowhere, and it's perhaps never been harder to be a promoter / organiser with the combination of altered gig-going behaviour post-COVID, cost-of-living pressures and an exodus of young people. However, we've also seen that the community has incredible resilience, and it's great to see amongst the news of closures, venues and festivals also opening or returning.

Are there any new or relatively unknown acts on this year's Great Sounds Great lineup which you recommend attendees make time to check out, or any other acts you’re keen to highlight?

Yes definitely! Pretty much the whole lineup of The Night Before is made up of incredible young artists those outside of Wellington or not invested in the local scene may be unfamiliar with. In terms of the main Great Sounds Great lineup, I'd probably highlight a few like Eyegum favourites Cruelly, renowned sound artist mHz bringing an audiovisual spectacle to the big stage at Meow Nui, and new local supergroup JELL making their live debut. But really we think everyone on the lineup is amazing and worth checking out!