Tora Bombora is one of New Zealand's most loved boutique music festivals, held each January at a remote coastal farm at Tora on the wild South Wairarapa coast. Perched above the sea at the southern tip of the North Island, with the Remutaka Range behind and the Palliser Bay stretching to the horizon, it occupies one of the most dramatically beautiful festival sites in Aotearoa — a setting that is central to the festival's identity and its devoted following.
The festival is small by design — intimate, community-spirited and deeply connected to the landscape that hosts it. The music programme spans folk, roots, indie and acoustic sounds that suit the coastal setting perfectly, and the combination of great music, extraordinary scenery, warm summer evenings and the particular spirit of a remote gathering of like-minded people has made Tora Bombora one of the most cherished events on the New Zealand festival calendar.
For those who have made the journey to Tora — along winding roads through farmland to the edge of the sea — the festival is one of those rare experiences that feels genuinely apart from ordinary life. For those yet to discover it, Tora Bombora is exactly the kind of secret worth sharing — a small, beautiful, perfectly formed music festival in one of the most spectacular corners of Aotearoa.