Thousands attend New Zealand's first 'ocean-grown' festival

Seaweed Fest 2025. Photo: Supplied / Red Beanie photography

Organisers of New Zealand's first 'ocean-grown' festival - Seaweed Fest 2025 - say it was a big success.

It has been touted as a potential replacement for Homegrown, which will be held on the Wellington waterfront for one last time this Saturday.

"It might not be as big as Homegrown - yet - but we are absolutely blown away by the interest and enthusiasm from the community over the past week," organiser Love Rimurimu project lead Zoe Studd said.

About 4500 people attended different seaweed-themed events across Wellington from 1 to 9 March - including a seaweed tattoo 'flash' day, edible seaweed tastings, behind-the-scenes tours of Te Papa's seaweed collections, expert talks, a mystery movie night at the Roxy, seaweed film and photography exhibitions and a sea shanty sing-along, which closed out the festival.

Love Rimurimu - a programme of Mountains to Sea Wellington, began as an education programme in 2020 before evolving into an active restoration project.

Seaweed Fest 2025. Photo: Supplied

With a number of festivals cancelled over summer, Studd decided it was time for one in honour of our underwater forests.

"The festival programme grew organically, and whilst the interest from collaborators was high, support from funders was hard to secure. At a certain point we just decided to go for it because we knew Wellington would love it, and it's really important to have the community alongside us as we work to restore our harbour."

Seaweed Fest 2025. Photo: Supplied / Sambath Ouch

The Love Rimurimu team has been working to restore Wellington's seaweed forests, but Studd said the project was unlikely to succeed without the help of the community.

"If we want healthy coasts and communities we have to work to protect and restore them. This all begins with caring about them in the first place.

"We hope Seaweed Fest has made an impact on the way people feel about our beautiful and diverse seaweeds."

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