Hamsterfest

Thursday 17th April - Monday 21st April 2025

We invite you to celebrate the annual Hamsterfest with us at the Paeroa Racecourse.
The Easter Folk Festival is the highlight of our year. It has previously been held at Gordonton, Te Aroha Racecourse, Matamata Racecourse, the Matangi Hillcrest Sports Club and it is now held at the Paeroa Racecourse. The Festival runs from Thursday evening to Monday morning, with most people camping on site, enjoying guest concerts, music workshops, a ceilidh (dance) on the Saturday night and the final concert on the Sunday night. You can come for a day, a night or the whole weekend!
As with last year, folks, there are demolition and construction works occurring down the far end of the racecourse.This year the entrance and the registration tent will be off the main road - Thames Road. Don't worry, there will be signs up to help you find us!The far end of the racecourse is Out Of Bounds. This is for your safety! We anticipate this area will be blocked off but in any respect please do not walk, drive or camp where it is marked on the map.Remember, the two camping areas are only so big so if you're settling in for the long haul, we would appreciate you parking your cars in the car park to make room for more people to set up their campsites!
Festival Rules.
New Zealand folk festivals have a happy history of being relaxed and friendly, with little sign of the issues rowdier events need to deal with. Attendees are generally well behaved and there are very seldom any incidents, and so we don't see a need for a long list of rules and instructions. We trust that everyone will help maintain the festival as a safe and friendly affair, and we have kept the hard'n'fast rules to a minimum:
  • No dogs/pets are permitted at the festival.
  • No smoking inside the facilities/buildings.
  • The gates open a midday Thursday. PLEASE DO NOT ARRIVE AT THE VENUE BEFORE MIDDAY THURSDAY. Sorry, no exceptions.
  • Please treat the venue and other festival goers with respect, courtesy, and general decency.
  • Festival organisers reserve the right to deny entry.
  • We aim to be a ZERO WASTE festival. We ask all attendees to take their rubbish away with them at the end of the festival. This is both environmentally friendly and a financial support for overheads, allowing us to run a great event.