Source: Radio New Zealand
Anisha Satya for Country Life
Underground Festival organiser Fran Bailey said the festival was about celebrating good produce, and the people behind it. RNZ/Anisha Satya
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It’s what’s underneath that matters at the Underground Festival.
The soil, how we treat it, and who it feeds were key focuses at the two-day educational retreat, held in the middle of a vineyard in Waipara.
Fran Bailey is the mind behind New Zealand’s “festival for farmers,” which draws heavy inspiration from her time at the Groundswell Festival in England.
“It’s a regenerative agriculture festival [run] over two days on a no-till arable farm. And, yeah, they get about 8000 farmers there.”
Regenerative agriculture – building resilient farm systems by doing things like restoring nutrient-depleted soil – has gained ground amongst Kiwi farmers in recent years.
So why not bring the Groundswell Festival to New Zealand, too?
Bailey was raised on a Tokoroa dairy farm until the age of six.
“I didn’t have anything to do with farming after that, when mum and dad sold the farm in the late ’80s.”
But she found her way back to farming while working in the UK.
“I ended up working at a regenerative farming podcast, and went to a regenerative farming conference,” she says.
“These farmers stood up and went ‘I’m an environmentalist too!’, and they were so passionate about biodiversity.”
The conference lit a fire under her to share environment-conscious farming stories, which she felt were underrepresented in media.
“I just thought, ‘farmers care about the land, and not enough people know about this’.
“I sort of put a stake in the ground to help tell their stories.”
Bailey spent three years managing public relations for Groundswell, before coming back to New Zealand and trying the concept out locally.
The Underground Festival 2026 is the first official event, and saw hundreds of people make their way to Greystone Wines’ vineyard over the two days.
“The farmers here, they vary from 500 hectare-plus sheep and beef stations, down to small market gardeners.
“We’re all coming together around an interest in soil health, and fertility, and how we can improve our soils to therefore improve the health of our plants.”
Given the success of this year’s event, Bailey’s mind has already turned to next year.
“Farmers are the salt of the earth; they are wonderful people, very practical, and I just want to help them tell their stories, connect, and keep making good progress.”
Learn more:
- Find out more about the Underground Festival here
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
