There’s a particular kind of magic in seeing the year over on a dancefloor, surrounded by your people, somewhere green and far from a city countdown on a screen. That’s what AUM does. The AUM New Year’s Festival runs 30 December 2026 to 2 January 2027 at Leighton’s Farm, South Head, Auckland – four days of house, techno and psytrance to close out one year and open the next. If you’re going, here’s what to expect and how to arrive properly prepared.

Dates, location and ticket links live on our AUM New Year’s Festival event listing – check there or the organisers’ channels for gate times and final details before you head out.

Why AUM Is Worth Your New Year’s

If you’ve been to an AUM event you already know. For everyone else: AUM has built a reputation in the Auckland scene for gatherings that care about the whole experience – the sound, the art, the stage design and the crowd – rather than just booking names and selling tickets. We’ve written about their winter events before, and both times the thing that stood out was atmosphere: the Kanuka Stage night with Lo-Fi Productions and Danny Howells, and the Hill Stage edition with Science of Sound NZ, which Justine described as a full sensory immersion rather than a gig.

Take that approach, stretch it across four days of summer at a farm on South Head, and add a New Year’s countdown. That’s the pitch, and it’s a good one.

The Music: House, Techno And Psytrance

AUM’s New Year’s programming spans house, techno and psytrance – a combination that makes for a genuinely varied four days. Expect the arc that these festivals do so well: grooving daytime sessions that let you ease into it, deeper and harder as each night builds, and those transcendent sunrise hours that regulars will tell you are the real reason they come. Check the event listing for the lineup as it’s announced.

Four Days Means Four Outfits (At Least)

A four-day festival over New Year’s is an outfit marathon, not a sprint, and there’s a New Year’s Eve night in the middle of it that deserves its own plan. The approach that works: pack pieces that remix. A rave set worn together on day one becomes two separate outfits later in the weekend, and a statement layer works over everything.

• Days: peak NZ summer sun on an exposed farm. Breathable, mesh, light colours, a hat, and sunscreen you actually reapply. A mesh top over a bikini or the Sexy Hollow Out Bodysuit handles the heat and still looks like an outfit.
• New Year’s Eve: your best piece, no question. Sequins and reflective fabrics are made for a midnight dancefloor – they catch every light on the site. The Rainbow Reflective Rave Set is the one-decision option, or build your own around Silver Sequin Pants. See our womens and mens outfit guides for full builds.
• Nights: yes, even in January. South Head gets a coastal breeze and the small hours get cold – a faux fur coat, cloak or hoodie is what keeps you out for the sunrise. More options in our festival faux fur guide.
• Something that glows – the LED Faux Fur Coat and the rest of our fibre optic and LED range earn their place across four nights, and make you findable in a crowd at 3am.

Camping Over New Year’s

Four nights is long enough that your campsite genuinely matters – this isn’t a one-night crash pad, it’s home for the turn of the year. Shade is the priority in peak summer: a solid gazebo, tarps and something to hide under at midday, because a tent in January sun is an oven by 8am and you will want to sleep past then.

Everything else – lighting your camp so you can find it, the in-ground cooler that keeps drinks cold all weekend, sleeping properly at a festival, and the full packing checklist – is in our NZ festival camping guide. If you want to go beyond the basics and build something people gather at, Festival Palaces is the next level.

New Year’s specifics worth adding to the list: more water than you think for four hot days, real food for the middle days when the excitement wears off and your body wants actual nutrition, earplugs so you can sleep while the party continues (and so four days of sound systems don’t cost you your hearing – see our earplugs guide), a leg bag to keep your essentials on you, and something warm for the 4am hours.

Pacing A Four-Day Festival

The mistake people make at New Year’s festivals is treating night one like it’s the only night. Four days is a long time, and the crew still standing on the 2nd of January are the ones who paced themselves: eating properly, drinking water in daylight, grabbing sleep when the sun makes the tent unbearable, and picking which sets actually matter to them rather than trying to catch everything.

Look after your people, look after the site, and give yourself the recovery day on the 2nd. Starting a year on a dancefloor as the sun comes up is one of the better traditions going – it’s worth being in shape to enjoy it.

Tickets and updates are on the AUM New Year’s Festival listing, and the whole clothing range is here when you’re building the four outfits. Happy New Year in advance – see you at South Head.