Festival News - Outerfields2021 Unveils Auckland’s Biggest Music Line-up of the Summer

Presented by: Music Helps | Mushroom Promotions

Outerfields2021 opens its gates for a 12 hour long dose of Aotearoa sounds and good times on Saturday 6 March 2021 at the central city Outer Fields at Western Springs.
 
The event proudly boasts an incredible live music line-up headlined by BENEE and Fat Freddy’s Drop along with premium food, bars and art. The day promises to cater to music fans of all stripes, mixing many of this country’s most acclaimed musical exports alongside the freshest names on the scene.
 
Like BENEE and Fat Freddy’s Drop; Aldous Harding, The Beths, Ladyhawke and Montell2099 have all had substantial international plans curtailed in 2020. Church & AP, Paige and Harper Finn have taken the chance to shine in the past few months and will be ready to fly when the borders open again.
 
The Outer Fields at Western Springs launched as a premier outdoor venue for the last Big Day Out and Auckland City Limits. Few who were there will forget sets by Snoop Dogg, Major Lazer and of course Grace Jones. The wide open green fields and treelined slopes have also hosted Mumford & Sons, Billy Idol and more in recent times.
 
Outerfields2021 runs for a full day, with more than 12 hours of music from gates at 10.30am till 11pm. The event is GA, all ages, and fully licensed with abundant food trucks and Auckland cuisine on offer amongst local artist installations, complementing the local sounds in the suburb.

Outerfields2021 is proud to support the work of MusicHelps, our partner charity. MusicHelps financially supports entities that use the power of music to change the lives of New Zealanders in need, and provides emergency assistance to kiwi music people experiencing extreme hardship and illness. Through its MusicHelpsLive campaign, MusicHelps has helped and continues to help people and businesses in the New Zealand live music community whose livelihoods have been shattered by the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

PS: Due to Covid-19 protocols, Outerfields2021 has a firm postponement date of 4 December 2021 in the unhappy event that you idiots don’t use the Covid tracer app every time you step out the door and keep your masks on when you’re asked to.

THE LINE-UP:

BENEE grew up a stone’s throw from Western Springs in Grey Lynn. Her meteoric rise over the past two years has seen her pick up platinum records in the US and beyond for mega-hit Supalonely and a pile of Aotearoa Music Awards. Two Spark Arena shows last month in a sold-out national tour proved that local audiences are flocking to hear what the world is going crazy about and loving it. BENEE shows deliver an inspirational sense of fun, mixing her quirky lyrics with a energetic, groove-drenched sound.

---

FAT FREDDY’S DROP needs little introduction. Founded in the Wellington club scene in 1999, Aotearoa’s seven headed soul monster have forged an international reputation as one of the globe’s finest musical acts. Drawing inspiration from almost every part of the black music lexicon, their unmissable live shows continue to be the stuff of legend, a potent mix of soul, jazz, and dub elements underpinned by horn and rhythm section as comfortable laying down a throbbing techy landscape as they are a swampy blues stomp.

---

MONTELL2099 is a 23 year-old electronic music genius with notable fans and collaborators all over the world including his label boss, trap producer RL Grime, hip hop star 21 Savage, and official remixes for Lorde, Post Malone, CharliXCX and Diplo under his belt.  Montell2099 has grown from humble beginnings making Soundcloud productions to a place on the biggest stages with mindblowing headline slots as a festival mainstay in New Zealand and travelling far and wide all over the world

---

THE BETHS are Auckland’s indie pop heroes of the moment and their two albums have won accolades from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and many more international publications to go along with Aotearoa Music Awards collected for Best Group and Best Alternative Artist. Their blend of propulsive singalong choruses, four part vocal arrangements and wry, introspective lyrics has won them fans all around the world and support slots for the Breeders, Pixies, Weezer and Death Cab For Cutie.

---

ALDOUS HARDING’s sound has evolved from the starkly gothic indie folk of her 2015 debut to one of the most unique artistic voices on the international stage. Signed to the influential UK label 4AD and working with UK producer John Parish (PJ Harvey) she has continued to create beautiful music often accompanied by eye-popping video clips. An artist of rare calibre, Aldous Harding does more than sing, she conjures a singular intensity. Her body and face a weapon of theatre, Harding dances with steeled fervor, baring her teeth like a Bunraku puppet's gnashing grin.

---

LADYHAWKE began her musical journey in Wellington bands before moving to Australia and exploding onto the international stage with her solo debut album featuring the massive hit My Delirium. Two more albums have followed as she has based herself between home and LA, continuing to mine the energetic 1980s influenced new wave pop sound that has made her a live favourite around the world for a decade now.

---

CHURCH & AP arrived in 2018 with single Ready or Not hitting the airwaves all over and announcing the Auckland teens as a fiery new entrant in the local hip-hop scene. The duo, who met at high school, have continued to unleash a string of tightly coiled bangers marking them out as real contenders and received attention as far away as the UK where Line of Best Fit raved “A rich cocktail that merges strong undertones of hip hop heavyweights with their youthful charm, topped with their ‘give me everything you’ve got’ attitude”.

---

PAIGE has taken initial love shown for her heartfelt soul-pop from global superstars Lizzo and Billie Eilish, who both discovered and called out her songs on the over-connected world of the internet, and now sits alongside those heroes on the radio waves with her single Waves. This kind of trajectory out of the bedroom was inevitable for the hugely talented Clarks Beach kid with the most authentic chops in town. She has appeared on stage alongside Ruel, George Ezra, SIX60 and Drax Project and nothing it seems will stop this 22 year-old, just like a bee, fluttering between catacombed thoughts of the heart as her songs invite us into her cozy space

---

HARPER FINN has grown up around live music – not just seeing his father Tim but working nights at Auckland venues and watching closely to see the combustible collision of music and youth culture on stage night after night. Soaking up influences from all over, his thoughtful tracks combine observations on modern love, youth, and young adulthood. A steady diet of releases over the past year has seen his sound evolve from late night electronic pop to the latest, his breakout hit Dance Away These Days, a post-lockdown banger inspired, he says, by a quote from Samuel Beckett: “Dance first. Think later. It’s the natural order.”

---

OUTERFIELDS 2021 TICKET SALES

Saturday 6th March 2021

Early Bird ticket price of just $99.00

Early Bird tickets on sale 12.00pm NZDT Monday 16th November 2020 from ticketmaster.co.nz

Vodafone presale from 12.00pm NZDT Monday 9th November til 12.00pm NZDT Wednesday 11th November
vodafone.co.nz/music

---