15 Feb 2024

I Was There When: The first Big Day Out opened

From Nights, 9:20 pm on 15 February 2024

Every Thursday, Nights speaks to people who were on the scene during a big moment in New Zealand's history.

Tonight we're going all the way back to 1994, at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium, when the first Big Day Out was held on these shores.

Big Day Out was a legendary music festival that ran in Auckland almost every year until the parent festival in Australia fell into trouble, with the last fest taking place in 2014.

One man who was there on that day was Murray Cammick, former editor of Rip It Up Magazine.

He joins Emile Donovan.

Big Day Out 2011

Photo: Simon Grigg / Rip It Up Archive