After months of speculation and concerned social media posts about whether the Tauranga Juicy Fest event in 2023 will happen, organisers have finally confirmed a venue.
The new festival, which promises to bring the "best of the '90s and early 2000s to Aotearoa New Zealand", is scheduled to take place in Auckland, Napier, Tauranga, Palmerston North and Whangārei in January.
Among the acts promised are hip-hop and R&B legends Nelly, Ne-Yo and Ja Rule.
In a post to Juicy Fest's official social media, it was confirmed the Trustpower Baypark Stadium will be the venue for the one-day event on Friday, January 6, 2023.
"Tauranga we got it done!" the update began.
"We're very excited to announce that we have finally secured the most epic venue for our Tauranga show after selling out the tickets for our first venue!
"You best believe we will see ya'll in Tauranga at Trustpower Baypark Stadium Friday, January 06, 2023!!
"Because we sold out Tauranga's first venue capacity, we've had to up the game and we've now made it official and added extra ticket allocation because the hype is real! So don't miss out on these tickets, it's going to be R&B season at the mount this summer."
Organisers also promised all tickets previously purchased for the show would "remain valid."
In August, organisers of the festival were forced to make a statement quashing rampant online rumours the proposed five-date tour was a scam.
Festival organiser Glenn Meikle said at the time: "We did prematurely announce a new venue for Tauranga but If this bigger venue falls through, we still have our original venue locked in at Wharepai Domain. Basically, the only difference is whether more people can attend our Tauranga festival or not."
The Domain could hold 8000 people - it's believed Baypark Stadium could hold substantially more, meaning organisers could satisfy the "couple of thousand people" they said were on the waitlist when Newshub contacted them in August.
There had also been concerns about the Napier City date and venue, which is set to kick off the tour on Thursday, January 5.
However, posters uploaded to Juicy Fest's social media accounts showed the event would be taking place at Napier's Tremain Field, a venue which hadn't been previously announced.
