10 acts we want to see at this year’s Rhythm & Vines festival
With the 2018/19 edition of Rhythm & Vines beginning to appear on the horizon (and the first lineup announcement not far away), the hype for New Zealand’s premier New Years Eve festival is only going to increase.
This year R&V announced a partnership with Live Nation, the worlds largest entertainment company, so I think it’s fair to say the expectations are pretty high. In the past, the team have done an incredible job of booking acts just before they blow up so come December, they always have a hot headliner.
With that in mind, we made a list of the top acts we’d love to see this year (and think there might be a chance of happening) including some big international names and some homegrown faves
Juice WRLD
Arguably the biggest break-out star this year, Juice WRLD’s tracks Lucid Dreams and All Girls Are The Same were definite sleeper hits. Slow on the pick up, this is one act who could have appeared on the R&V radar early, leading to a classic pre-blow up booking.
Baynk
This top lad is one of New Zealand’s most promising young artists. An incredible producer — his tracks can be your chill summer anthems, or go hard as f**k under the Rhythm Supertop. He showed out at the 2016 edition of the festival, and we’d love to see him back in 2018.
SZA
SWIDT
The most electrifying rap group in entertainment had the most electrifying set of Rhythm 2017, and if they aren’t back in 2018 it would be a bloody travesty. The Stoneyhunga boys know how to bring the party with a little bit of flair, and we’d love nothing more than to hear their new tracks bounce around Waiohika Estate.
Maggie Rogers
Every great festival needs that mellow/alt/folk act to set the tone in the early sunset hours before the hard shit comes on. At recent Rhythm’s it has been Dave Dobbyn or Angus & Julia Stone. This year we’d love for it to be Maggie.
Ekali
The Canadian DJ/Producer is becoming widely recognised as one of the best in the EDM scene. Every festival set he performs from Tomorrowland to Coachella is frothed over by fans. He’s got absolute bangers with Denzel Curry under his belt, but isn’t afraid to get melodic and emotional — something would make for an incredible experience as the sun rises on New Years Day.
Tyler, the Creator
The man had one of the best rap albums in 2017 with Flower Boy, and has been dropping throwaways online almost weekly recently. Combine that with the incredible, high-energy sets he has been performing at festivals this year, we can see him absolutely destroying the main stage at Rhythm. Imagine if he brought over Rocky for this joint too…
Dharmarat
Another kiwi who has been quietly putting in work and deserves the push onto a bigger stage. Dharmarat has dropped three projects in the past year, with several hard tracks that would perfectly set the vibe on the afternoon of the 29th. Rhythm and Vines — book this one.
Travis Scott
This one might feel like a reach, and it’s been rumoured/dreamt of for the past few years, but how can you watch the scenes above and not have Travis on this list. Having just dropped his third album ASTROWORLD, there’s a fresh batch of bangers for the livest rapper ever to bring to NZ.
My only question is whether the Kiwi crowd could keep up with his energy?
WUKI
One of the most talented growing names in electronic music, WUKI is known for his pumping sets and insane live mashups. He’s responsible for some of the best pop edits of the past couple years — just check out the crowd in the video above absolutely frothing.
