Electric Avenue is heading into its 11th year in Christchurch on 26 and 27 February 2027, and it’s landed its biggest headliners yet: Calvin Harris and Kings of Leon. Around them sits a genuinely wide-ranging bill, running from stadium-level electronic and rock through to pop, drum & bass and dance music across two days.
It’s already moving fast. An initial batch of 32,000 tickets sold out in under an hour back in April, before a single act had been confirmed, and only around 15,000 remain from what’s gone on sale since.
Kings of Leon are making their first Christchurch appearance in nineteen years, arriving with five New Zealand number one albums to their name and a touring history that includes Glastonbury, Coachella, Bonnaroo and Roskilde, plus a five-night run at London’s Hyde Park that still stands as a record. They’ve also got a new album on the way, O My Beloved, due in November.
Calvin Harris shares top billing, and he arrives with a genuinely massive global catalogue behind him: billions of streams across hits like ‘We Found Love,’ ‘Summer’ and ‘This Is What You Came For.’ It’ll be his first New Zealand show since 2019, and Electric Avenue has it as an exclusive.
Beyond the headliners, the 2027 bill leans hard into recent European festival heat: Calvin Harris is joined by Bebe Rexha, Gorgon City, Malugi and Wilkinson, all fresh off Tomorrowland in Belgium two months ago, alongside Major Lazer, who played Coachella earlier this year. As festival director Callam Mitchell put it:
“We’ve definitely got to the point where New Zealanders no longer have to leave the country to experience the calibre of artists you get at these major events.”
The rock and alternative side is the festival’s strongest yet. Kasabian, who formed close to 30 years ago and headlined Glastonbury in 2014, join Kings of Leon on the bill fresh off their new album ACT III going straight to number one in the UK, their eighth chart-topper there. Australian favourites Lime Cordiale, whose last two records both topped the Australian charts, and UK soul-funk act Jungle, playing an Electric Avenue exclusive, round out that side of things.
The electronic bill spans generations too. New York house pioneer Kenny Dope, of The Bucketheads and Masters at Work, has been shaping the genre for more than 30 years, and he’s joined by UK dance veterans Underworld, who’ve been one of British dance music’s defining forces for more than three decades. Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy .NUXX’ is still remembered as one of the era’s signature dance tracks, a status cemented once Trainspotting used it on its soundtrack in 1996. It’ll also be a New Zealand exclusive for Underworld. “Underworld for me personally is huge,” Mitchell said. “Like Kenny Dope, they literally helped shape electronic music.”
Drum & bass, always a strong pull for New Zealand crowds, gets Hybrid Minds and Wilkinson back, plus Birmingham’s K Motionz, who’s built a particularly strong local following. On the pop and R&B side, Bebe Rexha arrives off the back of her own Tomorrowland debut, while Tove Lo and Kehlani will both play New Zealand-exclusive sets.
The homegrown lineup runs just as deep. Fat Freddy’s Drop headline Friday’s local charge, while Saturday brings Ladyhawke, Home Brew and SACHI, three acts with loyal followings well beyond the festival circuit. Kiwi legends Th’ Dudes, fifty years on from forming and a hit when they played Electric Avenue two years ago, are also back.
Mitchell summed up the appeal:
“You can come for Kings of Leon and Kasabian, Calvin Harris and Major Lazer, Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo, Jungle and Lime Cordiale, or Hybrid Minds and Wilkinson. It shouldn’t necessarily all work on one festival bill, but it does.”
Final general admission weekend tickets, single-day passes and VIP tickets go on sale at 12pm on Thursday 24 September. One NZ customers have a separate final allocation of 5,000 GA weekend tickets available from 1pm the same day, though the registration window for that access code has already closed.
Electric Avenue 2027 full lineup:
Friday: Kings of Leon, Major Lazer, Bebe Rexha, Kasabian, Hybrid Minds, K Motionz, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Kenny Dope, Malugi, It’s Murph, Two Faced, Club Angel, Savage, Th’ Dudes, Daily J, Frank Booker, Louis Baker, Tali & MSSB, The Response, Poppa Jax, Stefany Beck, Imani-J, Mikey Scrooge, Dream.R, Joyce, Rydr
Saturday: Calvin Harris, Jungle, Underworld, Kehlani, Wilkinson, Tove Lo, Lime Cordiale, Gorgon City, Darius Syrossian, 33 Below, Pretty Girl, Home Brew, SACHI, Ladyhawke, Coterie, Sub-Tribe, 2XM, Sam Cullen, Castaway, Harry Charles, Chris Keene, Craig Shaw, Phoebe Vic, Pixie Lane, Amber Carly Williams, John Ussher, Dan Veitch, Siliconbeat, Elliot Tierney