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Nambassa is the tribal name of a trust, and a series of large music, counterculture, alternative lifestyle and hippie conceived festivals, held from 1976 to 1981 on large farms around Waihi and Waikino in New Zealand- Aotearoa. The Nambassa festivals' communities focused on peace, love and balanced lifestyle through workshops and displays advocating clean, sustainable energy and unadulterated foods. Nambassa championed sustainable ideas and demonstrated practical methods from the early 1970s and continues to do so. Nambassa 1979 Main Stage, 'Negative Theatre'.jpg

Significant events

  • 1977 January. Waikino music festival at Bicknel's farm, Waitawheta Valley, between Waihi and Waikino. Attendance 5500.
  • 1977 December. Auckland, Queen St parade to Albert Park for a free concert. Attendance 10,000.
  • 1978 January. Nambassa, three day music, crafts and alternative lifestyles festival on Phil and Pat Hulses' 400 acre farm in Golden Valley, north of Waihi. Attendance 25,000.
  • 1978 October. Nambassa winter road show, toured the North Island of NZ, promoting the 1979 festival.
  • 1979 January. Nambassa beach festival, touring family roadshow. Whangamata Waihi Beach Mount Maunganui and Coromandel.
  • 1979 January. Nambassa three day music, crafts and alternative lifestyle festival on Phil and Pat Hulses' 400 acre farm in Golden Valley, north of Waihi. Attendance 75,000 plus.
  • 1981 January. Nambassa five day celebration of music, crafts and alternative lifestyles culture on 250 acre farm at Waitawheta Valley between Waihi and Waikino. Attendance 20,000.

International and NZ music and arts performers, and cultural guests

While hundreds of performers and guests partook in Nambassa each year, here are a few:

  • Split Enz, Nambassa 1979, and relaunching their career with their new band.
  • The Little River Band, Nambassa 1979, with Glenn Shorrock.
  • Skyhooks, Nambassa 1978, like Split Enz, Australia's early developers of theatre rock and costume extravaganza.
  • Dizzy Gillespie, Nambassa 1981. Lined up with status of legendary jazz supremos such as Louis Armstrong.
  • Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Nambassa 1981. Early black American blues exponent who influenced the 1960s music revolution. *
  • Charlie Daniels, Nambassa 1981.
  • Barry McGuire Nambassa 1979. Famous for the 1960s international smash hit, Eve of Destruction
  • Kevin Borich, Nambassa 1981. Ex La-De-Das and Australian Blues Foundation Hall of Famer who is actually a Kiwi. *
  • Topp Twins, Nambassa 1979 and 1981. A couple of young kiwi girls finding their way around Nambassa.
  • Limbs Dance Production, Nambassa 1978, 1979 and 1981. Internationally known NZ dance troupe. *
  • Acorns Theatrical Productions, Nambassa 1978, 1979 and 1981. Jonathon Acorn, dedicated to children's entertainment in puppetry and comedy, produced the Woozlebub children's stage at Nambassa 1981, featuring five days of non stop theatrical and music productions. *
    • Alan Clay, Nambassa 1979 and 1981. Children's entertainer, author and international arts coordinator. *
    • Living Force, Waikino and Nambassa, 1977 and 1978. With Space Farm and Ticket. *
    • Hello Sailor, Waikino 1977.
    • Th'Dudes, Waikino 1977. Featuring a youthfull Dave Dobbyn, then nurtured by Charlie Gray from the Island of Real cafe.
    • Rick Steele and the Hot Biscuit Band, Nambassa 79, the winter show and beach festivals. *
    • Dallas Four, Waikino 1977. *
    • Citizen Band ex Split Enz. Performed Good Morning Citizens with full energy.
    • Tribrations, Nambassa 1978, 1979 and 1981. Performed their single Coromandel Gold. They were based in Coroglen Coromandel. *
    • Alistair Ridell, Nambassa 1978. *
    • Schtung, Nambassa 1978 and 1979. *
    • Midge Marsden, Nambassa 1978 and 1979.
      • Beaver, Nambassa 1978. *
      • Rough Justice, Nambassa 1978. *
      • Sam Ford's Verandah Band, Nambassa 1979. A loose-knit Ponsonby outfit. *
      • Chapman and White, Nambassa 1978 and 1979. Ted Chapman and Andy White wrote the Nambassa song which was a hit in 1979. It was re-released in 2002 by Split Enz keyboarder Eddie Rayner. *
      • Andy Anderson, Nambassa 1978 and 1979. Musician and actor. *
      • The Plague (band) Nambassa 1979 and 1981. Major claim to fame was a naked live performance (albeit covered in paint) in 1979.
      • Chris Thompson - *
      • Mahana. A traveling Māori theatrical rock band whose rock opera depicts the trials and tribulations of early white colonisation of New Zealand. The Nambassa Winter Show 1978, and the Nambassa festivals 1978, 1979 and 1981.
      • Inner Sky - Grenville Bell Katchafire and //www.eelmanrecords.com/projects/spines/spines.html JonMcLeary
      • Bunny Swan, Nambassa 1979. The lady of Alaska. *
      • Billy TK, Nambassa 1979 and 1981. *
        • John Hore-Grenell, Nambassa 1978 and 1979. *
        • The Roger Fox Bigband, Nambassa 1981. *
        • The Amazing Chicane, Nambassa 1981. *
        • Garry McCormick, Nambassa 1978, '79 and '81. Poet and comedian. *
        • Sam Hunt, Nambassa 1979, Poet. *
        Cultural Guests
        • Stephen Gaskin, Nambassa 1978, '79 and '81. Co-founder of the "The Farm (Tennessee)", an internationally known spiritual community in Summertown, Tennessee. Stephen Gaskin was a Green Party presidential primary candidate in the US elections of 2000. He and wife Ina May, plus other farm residents, made the annual pilgrimage to Nambassa.
        • Satchidananda, Nambassa 1979. Known among the 1960s counterculture as the man who opened the original Woodstock festival of 1969, and as the sage from India who introduced the art of Yoga to the west.
          • Ina May Gaskin, Nambassa 1978 and 1981. Widely credited with having created the modern home birth movement and helping to inspire the renaissance of midwifery in the United States.
          • Eileen Caddy Nambassa 1981. Eileen co-founded the Findhorn spiritual community in Scotland in 1962. Her workshops and discussions on Findhorn Foundation were well received.
          • Dr Richard Alpert, aka Ram Dass, Nambassa 1981. Richard Alpert was a professor of psychology at Harvard University who became well known for researching the effects of LSD, working closely with Dr.Timothy Leary. At Nambassa there was standing room only for Ram Dass' diverse lecturers on meditation and health.
          • Chief Oren Lyons, Nambassa 1981. Lyons is a Native American, a traditional faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, and a member of the Onondaga (tribe), Nation Council of Chiefs of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. He conducted lectures and coordinated with Māori land rights activists, sharing his Native American land rights experiences. *
            • Dr. Jim Cairns, Nambassa 1981. Former deputy Prime Minister and Labor Treasurer in the Australian government who opposed Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War and in 1970 led a protest against the war. He resigned from parliament in 1977 to devote his life to the counter-cultural movement.
            • The Twin Oaks echo community from Louisa, Virginia, sent a delegation of 6 people to the 1981 Nambassa 5-day celebration. Their workshop contributions were well received.
            • Eva Rickard, Nambassa 1979. Vocal agitator for return of Raglan golf course land to the Tainui Awhiro people from whom it was taken during World War 11. Gave a number of powerful lectures, on aerial railway and the main stage. Nambassa is sympathetic towards many indigenous Māori land claims. *
            • Tim Shadbolt, Nambassa 1978, 1979 and 1981. Political activist and workshop paticipant. In the 1970s, he founded a commune and concrete cooperative at Huia. He wrote an autobiography, Bullshit and Jellybeans.
            • Jonathon Daemion: Nambassa 1978, 1979 and 1981.Canadian New Age Personal development initiator.

            Self-sufficiency and healing arts workshops

            Nambassa aspires to the notion that a part of all history remains deeply imprinted within each and every one of us, not only through inherent biological genes, but also on a personal level through an unconscious spiritual window or esoteric DNA. It fosters the notion that we possess, within us as individuals, an unconscious memory mechanism, (a Cosmic Memory), which links us with our past manifestations. By becoming receptive to this natural order of information, it greatly assists us to consciously nurture a better understanding towards our future. The workshops aspired to revive what were considered essential belief systems and lost skills, worthy of resurrection.

            Nambassa 1978, Woodturning workshops. Photographer unknown.jpg workshop]] encompassing major cultural, creative arts and music festivals. Most large open-air entertainment gatherings, prior Nambassa, were essentially pop concerts. This new format demonstrated the merits of combining, in a complimentary way, multiple and diverse entertainment and cultural modules, within the one grand celebratory event. During the 1970s, the Nambassa Trust developed this concept of large scale multidimensional events, which the rest of the world only began adopting some 20 years later.

            pottery, indigenous Australians didgeridoo, boomerang throwing, creative art, musical instruments, Puppeteering convention,bonsai trees, batiking, screen printing, basket weaving, Maori woodcarving, furniture and woodturning, natural cosmetics, custom made sandals, clay therapy, aboriginal emu egg carving, silk screening, crochet and embroidery,macramé, ceramics, bone carving, candle making, stained glass, paper making, journalism and printing, glass blowing, enamelling, Maori art and jewelry, carving, the art of throwing pottery, weaving on inkle and back strap looms, wood-adzing, moccasin making, airbrushing, organic gardening,Nambassa 1981 Workshop, Alt. Energy centre 'Solar'. Photographer Michael Bennetts.jpg tie-dye, Maori kit making, mulching and composting, growing and using Soya beans, herb gardening, hydroponics, small orcharding, natural child birth, breast feeding, child care, alternative education, animal husbandry, raku pottery, fencing, small dams and irrigation, solar heating, methane gas plants, wind pumps and generators, Solar power, Solar cooker, waterwheels, goat farming, sheep milking, rammed earth walls, soil-cement adobe, stone masonry, hydraulic power, wind power, low cost housing and renovation, furniture making, moulds and mud houses, bamboo and it’s uses, alternative lifestyles and communities, permaculture, ecology and mining, native forests, save the whale, food preparation and storage, dried fruit, bread making, self-sufficiency, wine making, beekeeping, butter and cheese making, soap making, food cooperatives, healthy eating, civil liberties, New Zealand’s Nuclear-free zone, world peace and disarmament, music, puppetry,origami, theatre, dance and costumes, mask making, conservation and pesticides, clean water, mobile homes construction, bush craft, legal aspects of alternative land development, horse ploughing, family planning, vegetarianism, animal rights, martial arts, Third Worldpoverty, Nambassa 1981 Weaving workshop. Photographer Michael Bennetts.jpg civil and human rights, work cooperatives, craft cooperatives, Wood gas producers, solar panels, development of electric cars and bikes, woman’s issues, amateur radio, wood stoves and wetbacks, kite making, the environment (Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth), alternative education, Pacific cultural exchange (Pacific Islander), Maori land rights, community development, maori Marae, Maori hangi, substance abuse, new age and green politics, Nambassa 1978. Healthy living workshop.jpg alternative media, meditation, yoga, sufi dancing, I Ching, Tarot cards, Alchemy, massage, sweat lodge, nutrition, natural medicine, astrology, prayer and chanting, clairvoyance, meditation, spiritual healing, naturopathy, acupuncture, tai chi, herbs as medicine, natural remedies, reflexology, iridology and osteopathy. In maintaining Nambassas' nonsectarian and open door policy on religious philosophy, workshops were conducted on: Hinduism, Hare Krishna, Bible scholarship and Born again Christianity , Roman Catholic Church, Judaism, Ananda Marga, Buddhism, Tao, Islam, Hare Krishna Haribol, Sufism, Esoteric Christianity, Shamanism, Wicca, and Zen.

            Village Market

            Nambassa 1981 Pottery workshop in the Vilage Market.jpg workshop in the Village Marketplace.Photo Michael Bennetts]] Nambassa_1981_Village_Market,_'Don_Murchison'_on_Rudi_Trudi_Rooster._Photographer_Michael_Bennetts.jpgproducts and oddities, but they were a place of fun and entertainment, spontaneous or otherwise. The idea of a Market place servicing the local population, as a method of doing business, buying- selling- exchanging products, is as old as civilization itself. The 1981 festival village was designed around a central rotunda with a maypole, where spontaneously, poets, buskers and ravers alike featured. Nambassa vigorously promoted handcrafts, not only because of their therapeutic qualities, but because they had the potential to be a source of revenue to lifestyle proponents looking towards self sufficiency and economic independence. From the festival village one could attend any number of craft workshops, pick up a copy of the daily Nambassa Waves newspaper, go buy some beautiful oven baked fresh bread cooked in the wood-fired oven bakery constructed in a converted hay shed, go do some shopping, perhaps check out Radio Nambassaland, pick up some information from the mother centre about an event you didn’t want to miss out on, or to just simply chill out and absorb the atmosphere.

            Personnel

            The Nambassa administration involved hundreds, to this extent the 1981 5 day celebration gave out 1500 complimentary tickets to people and groups who were involved in this event in some official capacity. Those mainly responsible were: Peter Terry (Nambassa Trustee, founder and events coordinator 1976-2005), Lorraine Ward (Nambassa secretary and Trustee 1977-2005), Neil Wernham (graphics1977-1981), Doug Rogers (Music and staging technical adviser, 1976-1979), Fred Alder (Nambassa Sun coordinator, construction and former Trustee, 1978 and 1979), Bryce Lelievre (1981 festival secretary), Mike Taylor (Communications and site cordinator 1978 and 1979), Jonathon Acorn (1981 Woozlebub coordinator), Trevor Kotlowski (1981 goffa), Mike Colonna (Children's facility coordinator 1978 and 1979, Colin Broadley (Programing, Nambassa book coordinator and Open Air Theatre 1979 and 1981) and Barry Lowther, (Mother Centre father, 1978 and 1979).

            Nambassa is administered not by private enterprise but through a registered charitable trust. Its Trust articles list provisions and aims which allow it to organise public events to raise funds to meet its objectives. Consequently, the organisation is nurtured by and for the people, as opposed to being driven by corporate interests looking to maximise profit. This effectively enabled the events organisers to set minimal entry fees,(based upon projected profits), so that festivals were affordable to lower income people. For example, the 1979 3 day festival cost $23.00 for a three day adult pass- no more to pay. The trustees have on a number of occasions declined offers of corporate sponsorship because the products offered have not been conducive to the Trusts stated philosophical aims and objects. In the seventies the Nambassa Trust donated $29,698.00 to other organisations which meet its criteria.

            Sound and Lighting

            The Nambassa 1978 festival had 3 stages, 1979 saw this expanded to four (including workshop stages), and the 1981 5 day celebration heralded 5 separate sound and lighting venues, all running at the same time. In 1981, “Aerial Railway” was replaced with the “Open Air Theatre” and “Woozlebub” for children. The multiple staging concepts seem to be finally making a comeback in the twenty first century as seen at the recent Big Day Out and Glastonbury festival.

            The 1981 Nambassa 5 day event introduced “Radio Nambassaland”. This broadcasted live feeds from all the 5 stages and workshops, into the surrounding community.

            TECHNICAL: Barton Sound, MusicCare, Aerial Railway Sound, Oceania Sound, Harlequin Studios, Mandrill Studios, Mascot Studios, Jay McCoy lighting and Paul Moss workshop recording & PA.

            Trivia

            • On the basis of numbers, the 1979 Nambassa festival was over 10 times bigger than the famous 1969 Woodstock Festival. Swami Satchidananda, who also opened Woodstock ten years previously said, "This is better than Woodstock- you've got it made, lead the world".
            • As Nambassa sought to demonstrate the practical ideals of alternative lifestyle, alcohol and meat could not be purchased at any Nambassa event. However, festival patrons were welcome to bring their own if they so desired. attendance had already reached its maximum capacity. At 3 am Saturday morning Peter was on the phone negotiating paddocks from neighbouring farms, while Fred, Mike and Bernie were out in the dead of night with bolt cutters, removing fences to allow cars and campers into newly acquired festival acerage. By 11 am Saturday morning on opening day, the traffic police closed the festival, were telling people to go home, and announcing on radio that the event could accommodate no more patrons. They ordered the organisers to remove the entry gates to free the roads, as vehicles and pedestrians were banked up in all directions for some 15 kilometers. But still they arrived. Some 5 kilometres towards Waihi a tent city spontaneously arose on a neighboring farm where approximately 15,000 people parked and then walked the final leg into the festival site. Others abandoned their vehicles in Waihi itself and made the pilgrimage to Nambassa on foot.

            • Nudity was a factor at all Nambassa festivals. In an atmosphere of openness and compelling spiritual flow, a sense of personal freedom and discovery prevailed and this led to a considerable amount of nudity in the most innocent sense. Thousands of people simply got naked and wandered the festivals with little or no clothing. House trucks 1981. Photographer Michael Bennetts.jpgNambassa 1981 Camping Mobil Homes workshop2.jpg Nambassa 'Mahana Rock Opera' Story of white Colonisation. Photographer unknown.jpg

              For a while the situation was very volatile. Fred Alder, at the compound itself, did all he could to calm the situation. Peter Terry arranged a meeting with the police principals and advised them that they had made their point, and had them-selves become the focus of disruption threatening the peaceful outcome of the event. He told them that if these petty arrests continued then he too, would join the civil disobedience campaign to have the police removed from the festival. A deal was struck and potential disaster avoided. Peter then announced, from the main stage, what had transpired and asked that the huge body of people withdraw from the police compound. He explained that we needed all police on hand, given that we had had a drowning at the festival beach after a yacht had anchored in the bay and its occupants attempted to swim ashore. The protesters responded and withdrew without reservation. No further arrests were made. At the post festival wash-up the police issued a national press release congratulating the festival organisers for the way they managed the festival, and congratulated the 75,000 festival patrons for their good behavior.

            • Just a month out of the 1981 5 day celebration at Waitawheta Valley, the Ohinemuri Council sought, and were granted, a legal injunction which effectively cancelled the festival. This resulted from objections to the event from a few local Waitawheta farmers. Once the red tape and bureaucracy was negotiated to everyone’s satisfaction, the injunction was lifted.

            complications. No one, including Michael Gudinksi and his Mushroom Records label, (Split Enz record company), would back the venture because the band had not fared overly well in the UK and had undergone significant member changes. After talks between Nambassa and Mushroom, (Peter Terry flew to Melbourne in an attempt to stitch a deal) Michael Gudinksi declined to assist financially with the proposed Nambassa venture given, he said, Mushroom had already lost considerable money on the band's UK adventure and was not in a position to invest further in their future. Gudinksi, who we had dealt with the previous year with Skyhooks, instead offered a compromise deal without Split Enz, involving top Australian bands keen to play Nambassa. [[Image:Nambassa 1981 Photographer Michael Bennetts.jpg|thumb|155px|left|Nambassa 1981.

          Photo Michael Bennetts]] We refused the compromise. We wanted Split Enz, who we considered to be integral to the NZ music scene, or nothing. After some wrangling it was decided that Nambassa would go it alone and negotiate directly with the band itself. Ultimately the Nambassa Trust completely finance the bands return home. We paid their airfares, gave them spending money and organised two weeks' accommodation and a rehearsal venue with equipment in Waihi, where the new band could rehearse for the gig. Split Enz performed free at Nambassa 1979, forgoing their appearance fee so that we could get them home and prepared for their future musical assult on Australasia. At this decision, Mushroom, not wanting to miss an opportunity, came to the party and was a great assistance in the technical and logistic issues of getting the band home. They agreed to take the band from Nambassa and tour Australia, and Michael subsequently released their hit single “I see Red” to coincide with their Nambassa appearance. This olive branch from Mushroom we much appreciated, given that it gave the band who had waned in popularity in NZ since the heady mid seventies, valuable airplay. When Split Enz burst onto the stage at 8.30 pm on Saturday night on 28 January 1979, the Tao of great success was written all over them, and this heralded a new and unprecedented era for their new band. Inspirational musical artistry and True Colours rocked forth, and the rest is history.

          because we had other farmers and their friends, from the same farming district, who were legally objecting to the event taking place at all.

        community hall which sat in a farm paddock in the rural countryside just 3-4 klms on the main highway to Tauranga, south of Waihi. Just a handful of days out from the festival the unthinkable happened. At around 3am one morning, the hall caught fire and burnt to the ground taking with it the bands personal gear and a host of other sound equipment which Nambassa had put in place so that they could clock up some playing time. It was controlled chaos. Almost overnight, Split Enz replaced their gear with borrowed equipment, and indeed, “we all saw red” that morning. When the band finally emerged on stage two days later they were deadly. Fifty thousand people went right off and gave them the welcome home they so richly deserved. The band responded in kind.... A new community hall has since been rebuilt at Waimata servicing that rural district. The new hall was rebuilt by the local farming community, towards which the Nambassa Trust made a significant financial contribution.

      • Due to the absolute chaos which arose from the huge influx who made their way to Nambassa in 1979, we will never know how many people turned up to this event. The official Nambassa count is 75,000. Some segments of the media, including Television New Zealand who were regularly flying over the festival, were quoting estimates as high as 150,000 people. The Nambassa organising committee flush from the success of the 1978 festival, were catering for 30,000.

      Film

      Nambassa Festival, a two hour musical documentary which had five crews working on it, New Zealand, 1980 The New Zealand Film Archive / Ngā Kaitiaki O Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua The film (50 minute version) was part of the New Zealand Film Commissions entry to the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. Director/editor, Philip Howe. Production company: Nambassa Trust, Peter Terry and Dale Farnsworth.

      Record/CD

      A double album, book and feature film were released after the event - the double LP Stetson 2SLRP12, "Festival Music", 1979 (NZ) featuring Split Enz, Living Force, Flight 77, Chapman and White, Mahana, John Hore, Steve Tulloch, Plague, Chris Thompson, Schtung, Rick Steel, Tribrations, Nevil Purvis, Satchidananda, Gary McCormick, Andy Anderson. Produced by Peter Terry.

      Books

      Two relevant books have been published

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Nambassa".

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