Laneway Festival has announced a ticketing update affecting thousands of fans planning on heading to their Auckland gig.
While they’ve previously allowed their age restriction to be 16+ at the event, the Auckland District Licensing Committee has rejected the festival's application to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to attend in 2025.
In a statement to ticket holders, the festival expressed their disappointment over the situation.
“We worked closely with Police, Alcohol Licensing Inspectors, and the Medical Officer of Health, in good faith throughout the application process and did not anticipate this disappointing outcome,” they wrote.
We were looking forward to providing younger audiences with the opportunity to access great live music and are truly sorry this won’t be possible at the 2025 event.
As a result of the decision, all under-18 ticket holders will receive a refund.
Ticketek will process these refunds between January 6 and January 18, 2025, due to the holiday period shutdown.
The festival has urged ticket holders to be patient as the process is completed.
“We’re incredibly grateful for your understanding, and we hope to welcome you to future Laneway Festival events,” the statement read.
You’ve gotta appreciate the effort to give our youngest gig-goers a great experience, but understandably, rules are rules.
No doubt there will be plenty more opportunities in the future.
