NZ Music Month 2026 wrapped, five things every creative in Aotearoa should take from it
Over 1,000 events. International showcasing at The Great Escape. Dame Lynda Topp. Here’s what we’re carrying into the rest of the year.
Wellington, NZ Music Month is done for another year. More than 1,000 events, activations, and promotions ran nationwide across May under the theme Our Sounds, Our Spaces, celebrating music and the places it's made and enjoyed across Aotearoa. It was big. Here's what we think actually matters.
The Summit is worth your time next year
The NZ Music Month Summit at The Tuning Fork on 2 May brought together industry professionals, artists, and educators for a full day of panels, building an audience in Aotearoa, putting on live shows, and an introduction to the new platform Lume alongside Ladi6 and Deva Mahal. The conversations in that room are the kind you can't get from a YouTube tutorial. Mark it for 2027.
Waiata reo Māori is the heartbeat of this scene
The Summit included a dedicated panel on the spaces where waiata reo Māori and waiata reo rua thrive. The most distinctly Aotearoa music being made right now is also the most culturally grounded. That's not a coincidence, it's the point. For any creative building here, that identity is the root, not a feature.
Aotearoa went global, and held its own
NZ was Lead Country at The Great Escape festival in Brighton, one of the world's most important showcasing events. VANA sold out a debut US headline run. Balu Brigada wrapped three months of international touring. Aldous Harding's new album landed globally. Our music is ready for the world, and the world is paying attention.
The pipeline is being built
The Music Careers Expo at Big Fan on 6 May offered secondary students a free window into music industry careers. Combined with Universal NZ's nextWAV. programme, there is genuine momentum around building accessible pathways into the industry from the ground up, for the students, and for the kind of industry we're all building together.
From The Pit keeps proving why visual storytelling matters
Eight years in, FromThePit's music photography showcase continues to put visual storytelling at the centre of Aotearoa music culture, this year through 100 images in Auckland laundromats and venues nationwide. Community and creativity feeding each other, exactly as they should.
NZ Music Month ends. The work continues.
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