Organisers of the Juicy Fest 90s music event due to take place in Tauranga on Friday have cancelled the show amid "increasing safety concerns" caused by the wild weather hitting Aotearoa.
In a statement released on Friday morning at 8:30, organisers said they were "heartbroken" to have made the call.
"We are heartbroken to announce we have had to make the tough decision this morning to cancel Juicy Fest Tauranga on Friday due to increasing safety concerns prompted by potentially dangerous weather conditions."
Juicy Fest promoter Glenn Meikle said with a heavy rain warning and strong winds in place for parts of the Bay of Plenty, including around Tauranga, it would be irresponsible of us to allow this event to go ahead.
"Our team has been on site through the night monitoring weather conditions. We have been forced into this decision but we know this is the right thing to do because we are prioritising the safety of our patrons, artists and crew, which is paramount. We are completely gutted but we cannot risk anyone's safety," Meikle said.
"Juicy Fest Tauranga was expected to be one of our biggest shows of the Juicy Fest Tour and we were looking forward to hosting all of our artists at home in Tauranga and putting on an amazing show for all of our festival-goers," he said.
Organisers say all tickets will be fully refunded for the event and that will be "an automatic process that will happen within the next 14 days".
They also added there were still tickets for the Auckland, Whangārei and Palmerston North shows and they were "still scheduled to go ahead as planned."
Among the acts taking part are hip-hop and R&B legends Nelly and Ne-Yo. Fellow performers Ne-Yo, Pretty Ricky and Xzibit were among those honoured with a pōwhiri after flying into New Zealand for this week's Juicy Fest events.
The event is the fourth summer music casualty of the week after wild weather hit the motu, bringing heavy rain, flooding and road chaos to parts of the country.
In the Coromandel alone, over 400mm of rain has fallen in the past 72 hours.
High winds and driving rain on Thursday forced thousands of holidaymakers to abandon their summer plans and leave spots such as the Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty.
On Thursday, the Coroglen Tavern's planned Rockin Horse festival was postponed, seven hours before it was due to begin.
The Coromandel venue revealed the news on social media at 11.30am on Thursday, saying: "Storm activity over the past 12 hours has been worse than anticipated, flooding our campsite and numerous important access roads."
On Wednesday, British reggae band UB40 cancelled their Bay of Plenty concert.
The 'Red Red Wine' hitmakers were due to headline A Summer's Day Live concert on Wednesday at the Trustpower Baypark in Tauranga.
But hours before it was set to start, promoter Neptune Entertainment announced it was being called off, after the weather watches for the region were upgraded to warnings.
And on Tuesday, organisers of the Summer Haze Matakana festival, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, decided to cancel their show.
"The health and safety of our crew and attendees are paramount, and the decision has been made in conjunction with the venue, production and promoter team," Summer Haze said on its website.
