An amazing reviw of Hamstefest 2025 published by the Waikato Times:
Soothing sounds and a few familiar faces at Hamsterfest
by Mike Mather
April 21, 2025
WaikatoTimes Saturday May 24, 2025
The annual Hamilton Folk Festival organised by the Hamilton Acoustic Music Club, Hamsterfest - as it is now known - is a regular Easter Weekend event at the old Paeroa Racecourse.
It is also very likely quite unlike any other music festival in the country.
Attended by a few hundred people every year, Hamsterfest feels more like wandering into an extra-large family gathering than something like the Big Day Out or even the old Sweetwaters festivals.
Bands make their way to the stage inside the racecourse’s Argonaut Lounge and tune up as beard-stroking hipsters wander in and out and kids cavort out in the foyer. It’s remarkably laid-back - and that’s just the way they like it, club president Chris Penman says.
“A lot of people ask why we hold it all the way out here in Paeroa. The simple answer is that we can’t get a venue that’s big enough in Hamilton,” said Penman, who also organises the festival.
“We need to have a place that has a decent amount of camping space and, of course, with it being Easter all of the local Christian camps are full up.”
About five years ago the Wright Foundation - developers Wayne and Chloe Wright, who have helmed the conversion of the former racecourse into a new residential and commercial subdivision - offered the old grandstand building and the surrounding environs as a venue.
“It’s just lovely. The old building is not what it used to be, but it is perfect for something like this.”
Penman said she had been part of the club since she was 13, and the club itself was about 53 or 54 years old.
“There’s about three or four generations now who have been a part of our club and keep coming to Hamsterfest year after year.
“It’s all acoustic music and it’s all an amazing thing, really.”
On Sunday afternoon when the Waikato Times arrived to investigate what was happening,the folk music supergroup known as Unsung heroes were midway through their set.
The band comprises acoustic music luminaries Chris Priestley and Nigel Gavin, as well as journalist and producer Cameron Bennett and actor Peter Elliott.
There were many in the audience who were happily sitting with their eyes closed, letting the soothing sounds saturate them.
Also on the billing on Sunday were Dunedin band Moroney, Auckland folk musician Sammy Leary and the festival’s special guest, Jennifer Reid, a performer of nineteenth century Lancashire dialect and Victorian broadside ballads who hails from Manchester in the United Kingdom.
For the unacquainted, theHamilton Acoustic Music Club meets for regular club evenings on the second Tuesday of every month at the premises of the Hamilton Motorcycle Club onSeddon Rd.
More information can be found on hamc.org.nz.
