O, Twisted,
You shine so bright
Tāwhirimātea had guestlist this year
And boy, did they let it rip —
Knees deep in mud,
tents lashed with rain
Wind whipped our hair back and forth
but we did not retreat
Down by the Beat Bach
Sam’s Creek awa gushed like a supercharged highway
echoing our mind-body-wairua
elevated with possibility
soakedtothebone
— yet warm on the inside
Let soundsystem vibrations
and deep belly laughs
shake us to the core
united in the valley
to weather the storm, as one
In the morning light,
Tui said we needed Tamanuiterā
to come to the party
and he got the memo…
the sun cured our anxiety
and hung it out to dry
on the dancefloor
Tihei mauri ora!
Sunbathing in Ranginui and Papatūānuku’s embrace
encrusted with fried mud
waltzing with wasps, sandflies & weka
engorged with human blood & cash-only pad thai
“Who will dance on the floor / in the round?”
We returned to our Twisted paradise
in the southern loins of this suffering planet
to forge our favourite ways of living —
in harmony b2b with
nature, music, artistic expression
and each other…
O, Twisted,
You’re right on time
to lead the revolution
Stay here with us
on this mortal plain —
We Beseech You
Alrighty whanau,
Back with another Twisted review for 2025/26, and what a whopper it was!!!
Words to describe this year’s experience may be futile, but yeah, go on I’ll give it a crack… If you haven’t already, I recommend reading my Vibe Check from last year’s edition, as it contains my initial impressions from the festival, which were only heightened, affirmed and strengthened this year.
SO.
Returning to the Cobb for a second time, I felt a lot more connected to the webs and networks of people that hold the festival together. Even throughout December in Wellington, I felt more attuned to the ‘frequencies’ around the city, spotting the idiosyncratic moss green posters flyposted on every street corner in town, and zooming in with a knowing eye…
Less decoding required = deeper exploration. Ability to comfortably lock in = variant types of discoveries.
With a year experience under my belt, I knew the lay of the land and felt more familiar and aware of the rhythm of the festival, which ran like clockwork from load-in to pack down. (For example, during pack-down mornings, they play two songs over a boombox to wake everyone up and signal that its time to get back to it.) I have endless amounts of respect and admiration for the people that put this on every year. Period.
What a thrill to reconnect with the crew from last year, all the Twisted homies from around Aotearoa and Australia, and of course, the all the buzzy NPC characters that make this festival truly world class vibes.
Special shout out to the Artist Liaison babes for being there to help in all sorts of ways: from helping me set up a new tent in the rain cos my first one was leaking, to helping carry my gear up the slippery mudslide to Te Weta stage, and even comforting me with the concept of “JOMO” (joy of missing out) when they could see I needed help to go to sleep, but didn’t wanna miss the bass on the Beat Bach. And the potato chips they fed me like a pig in a trough, lol. I needed that. Love you guys!
Gumboots and x2 1.5L coconut water in tow, I came equipped with stronger survival instincts (lol ish) and a deeper understanding of the “return migration” that drives Twisted’s Faithful over the Takaka Hill to this remote five-day celebration every year.
But nothing could have prepared us for the weather bomb that hit on New Year’s Eve.
The rain was relentless. It rained downwards, sideways, diagonal, and upwards, splashing off the lakes it had created and seeping into every inch of skin available. There was so much rain that the earth turned to mush underfoot, if it wasn’t a knee deep pool of mudwater already.
In the early evening, Dub Princess gave it a good crack by jumping on the subs and dancing in the rain with the drenched crowd, but a heady mix of uncertainty, cold and NYE hard-send steered the festival into a maggotty mongrel night of chaos, extremities, and Shawshank-esque arms in the air redemption.
As the rain poured down, the Beat Bach was closed on the night of New Year’s Eve, which unfortunately meant the cancellation of Om Unit and Mystic State‘s headline sets. The lower campsites by the river were evacuated, people were not allowed to return to their tents, while down the valley in the ‘Pit’, tents were either completely submerged or floating away.
The closure of the Beat Bach and the torrential downpour up top meant punters squashed into the other two stages en masse. The Chillery was packed to the rafters, with people scrambling to get in across the moats that had formed around the sides, with Beat Bach refugees just trying to make the most of it, and others just going full butt-naked mud wrestling mode, much to the amusement and/or chagrin of others.
I spent much of the night at the Experimental Night in the Dojo, modelled on a grungy flat lounge complete with sofas, walls and a roof, and enjoyed every second of it. The string of live sets from Ekho Laliah, Juniper May, Junus Orca, QWONQ and Field Enhancement was a highlight of the festival. Seeing the rain pelt down diagonally on the food caravans outside whilst being pummelled with feedback and noisy hardware bleepblurps was surreal to say the least.
After five hours, I emerged from the Dojo to see what was going on, glimpsed down towards the Beat Bach and saw the river rushing down the valley at 200kmph, which was enough to make my already elevated heart rate increase BPM tenfold.
Word of mouth said it possible the river would burst its banks, which would be a straight up civil emergency. No cars were allowed to move. Everyone was locked in. Credit to the crew for keeping calm and carrying on – laminated signs popped up all around the village, which directed people to the Psy Care and Kaitiaki tents if they were “cold? wet? homeless?” which certainly put a lot of brains and hearts at ease.
With my performance set to take place the following afternoon on Te Weta, I called it a night and collapsed in my tent, miraculously managing to find sleep as the walls of my tent fluttered furiously in my face.
My mulched Twisted program 2025/26: “its giving Te Tiriti O Waitangi”
The next morning, I awoke to the light pitter-patter of rain. Everything was gonna be okay. Shortly after, the sun came out, and our dampened spirits began to revive.
This year, I had the honour of performing up top on Te Weta, the largest stage of the festival, and home to the totem animal, designed and built from natural materials and recycled elements of previous years’ designs. It is only fitting that the giant weta is one of the heaviest insects in the world, as Te Weta was home to some of the heaviest bass of the whole festival.
It was a step up for Kaishandao, following last year’s performance on The Chillery. Being up in that booth was truly humbling. There is serious horsepower up there. I felt like the captain of a waka, leading the tenacious crowd of mud troopers into a sunny afternoon of recovery and re-send. At one point, a truck pulled up and started distributing bales of hay into the crowd to soak up the mud, which people incorporated into their wonky ass dance moves.
I’m not sure I will upload my set (as I don’t have enough space on my free Soundcloud account lol), and I want it to exist in that “you had to be there” space. I opened with Karen Wants Her $20 Back, and that’s all you need to know.
Thank you to everyone who pulled up and stomped around in the mud with me, despite the exhaustion and post-storm campsite admin required for further survival. I will never forget it.
K, I’m just gonna go bullet point mode from here to get the vibes down, as my linear narrative kinda cuts out after my set anyway lol *drinks 18 beers*
Bless up to all the good humoured cats and their takes / antics that have me cracking up randomly afterwards. Just like chopping vegetables and things come to mind that make me cackle. Twisted really fills my lol-ly jar for the year!
Artists I saw and loved (not limited to / these are the ones I could identify):
Anna Morgan 👑
Caru
Shocking and Stunning
Earth Tongue
Cruelly
Plague of the Fallen
Rotaryho
Om Unit Acid Dub Studies
Kitakita
Kita
PL8
I.C.Y
Sassmate b2b Rimutree
VLVT
Normalface
Ekho Laliah
Juniper May
Junus Orca
QWONQ
Field Enhancement
Saturday Night Rush
Ollie Bunnie
Hip-Hop Open Mic
Flatmate
Disaffected
Mani Festo
Grouch in Dub
& Onhell, Mystic State, Texture and the whole cast of legends that got up and played b2b at the Roots After Party Day 1
Quotes:
-Me: “Well, looks like its time for the re-toxification!”
-Giant paper hat lady: “Yeah, its time for the re re re, re re re, re re re, re re re re re glam.”
– “LOW IMPACT BEEF.”
-“I feel like I’ve been doing a nang for an hour.”
During the power cut at the Beat Bach at Shocking and Stunning:
Feather: “…. is this what it sounds like in Quiet Camping?”
Taiwan lady: “…are you gay or something?”
Lora: “…aren’t we all?”
After hectic retelling of NYE evacuation night lore:
– “… and then she dropped my vape in the mud. I was like that’s it bitch, you’re going to Psy Care.”
-“Main outs are the mean outs.”
Thai Food Guy: “Sorry we can’t take meal tickets anymore.”
Me: “NOOOOO now I have to eat the white people food.”
Thai Food Guy: “I’m so, so sorry.”
-Anna: “I’m thinking about this egg and lettuce salad that I saw on Instagram, I’m making it in my mind, and eating it.”
-Me: “Omg how’s your baby?”
-Emma: “Oh, I don’t have a baby, but that’s cute you thought I have one.”
-“Oi fam what’s happening with this gumbo??”
*a giant pot of gumbo appears out of nowhere*
-“Asiaaaaaaans!”
-“Give it a hoon what’s the worst that could happen?”
Polarising character comes to sit with us at Roots Bar
Lady: “I’m actually banned from here.”
Horse: “Ah fuck it, so are we, join the club.”
Angry lady: “this is not Roots Bar, get off my property.”
Us: LOL
+ anything else that came out of Reme’s mouth basically, LOL.
Memorable moments and visions (apart from the whole festival ofc)
– Digital poi performer tossing poi pizzas and emojis in the air
– Weta of Kahurangi National Park and their Conservation w/ Danilo workshop in the Dojo with everyone listening intently around a giant pool of mudwater
– Donk Dobbo’s polarising set…
– Pere catching wasps with cups at the Beat Bach Band Day picnic
– Pots and pans on the dancefloor
– The hecticness of the toilet scrawls on the lower campsite toilets
– Reciprocated love ❤
– The Tino Rangatiratanga soaked with rain, drooped beneath its own weight and was taken down, then reinstated to its rightful place in the middle on the last day.
OMG okay. So now to talk about the state of it.
Twisted is in danger of ending for good this year.
As you will have seen on Twisted’s socials, the festival is walking the edge of financial bankruptcy and closure. This year, they sold 1000s less tickets than last year, which has exacerbated the debt they’ve accrued since the founding of the festival eleven years ago. Twisted announced that next year may be the last edition, unless some serious financial assistance comes into play.
This year was notable less populated that the 10 Year Anniversary edition in 2024/25, which was a huge blow to ticket revenue. I couldn’t help but think of Nicola No Boats and the cancellation of the much needed new ferries between the North and South Islands. Even those who decide to go to Twisted last minute have basically no way of attending, because ferry tickets are scare and VERY expensive. Prohibitively expensive. We paid over $1000 to get a tiny car from Wellington to Picton. What can be done?
Emergency systems are GO.
I’ve been typing this whole thing straight off the top of my dome for like three hours now and I’m sure if you’ve read this far you really care about the festival and want it to survive in to the future.
Like all great festivals, Twisted creates an alternate world for us to inhabit outside of the mundanity of everyday life, where the shit we consume and participate in is commodified for the profits of corporations and our entire livelihoods are treated like consumer data.
Twisted allows for real face to face connection that guide the rest of our lives as human beings – it brings us levity, healing, expression – it shows us how we want to live and love. Twisted is a portal of aroha, creativity, curiosity and downright hilarity that make us grateful to be alive. The experience is sacred.
So what can we do???
Words from the boss man Dee Tee:
We aint goin’ down without a fight!
Twisted is making meke moves to save the party:
Keep an eye out on on our socials for some monthly competitions with some insane prizes, the long awaited upcoming relaunch of the back catalogue of merch, a steady stream of exclusive compilation albums, featuring many of the biggest names from the Twisted alumni, plus a stack of up and coming/established Kiwi producers, a Boosted campaign and upwards of 25 fundraiser parties being thrown across the planet.
Alright whanau you heard it!
And louder for those in the back!!! Check out the documentary from the Twisted Decennium for all the korero and lore, which as a newbie I randomly got to have the first and last word on bahahaha?!
Let’s all get behind supporting this incredible festival and continue to see it send hard into the future!!! We can do it!! He tangata, he tangata, he tangata!
Buy tickets for 2026/27! Lock it in!
Follow Twisted Frequency on socials and keep your eyes on their website for more updates. https://twistedfrequency.nz/
See you end of year back in the Cobb,
Love,
Kris
xx
KIWESE 