Wānaka Crag Fest 2025
New Zealand Alpine Club and Wānaka Climbing Club are pleased to announce the first edition of Wānaka Crag Fest, a sustainable and inclusive rock-climbing event which promotes community and best practice. Enjoy climbing with new and old friends, learn new skills at the climbing clinics, and enjoy the evenings with events and social gatherings.
The festival aims to bring together NZ’s climbing community, to inspire them to get out and enjoy climbing, upskill and connect, in one of NZ’s mecca climbing areas.
What to expect
If you’ve been climbing for years, you don’t need us to tell you where to go for the best climbs in Wānaka. Get a self-sufficient climbing ticket, pick a project to send with your buddies, and catch up with old friends or make new friends at the evening activities.
If you don’t know your way around the Wānaka climbing crags, or if you don’t have a go-to climbing buddy, you can sign up for our supported climbing sessions. Each day, our volunteer crag guides will host a social climbing session at a different crag with a range of easy grades. There will be top ropes set up, additional ropes and draws to use and lots of new friends to climb with.
Pick your preferred climbing style:
- Self-sufficient climbing - you’ve got your own gear, plenty of belay buddies and know your way around the Wānaka crags
- Supported climbing - join our social climbing sessions if you know how to safely climb outside, but you’re looking for people to climb with or to put a top rope up for you
Family-Friendly and Youth Inclusion
Crag Fest 2025 welcomes families and youth climbers (ages 13-18), offering opportunities to learn and climb in a supportive environment. Youth can join dedicated clinics and participate in social climbing sessions, with a parent or guardian taking full responsibility for their safety and supervision. A detailed waiver ensures clear guidelines, outlining the responsibilities of guardians and the inherent risks of climbing activities. Join us for a festival that inspires climbers of all ages to grow and connect!
Clinics - more details coming soon
When purchasing your festival ticket, you will be able to add any of the clinics. Please make sure you're not signing up for two clinics taking place at the same time. If your preferred clinic is sold out, get onto the waitlist.
Clinic details will be confirmed soon, check out last year's event page for examples.
Festival programme
Friday
- Registration and briefing
- Supported climbing/clinics session #1
- Social night with Ground Up Brewery including prizes, vendor village, competitions and more.
Saturday
- Late registrations / Briefing
- Supported climbing/clinics session #2
- Sustainability project
- BBQ party with live music
- Supported climbing session #3
How to sign up
In order to join Wānaka Crag Fest, you need to be a member of either the New Zealand Alpine Club (and provide your NZAC member ID) or the Wānaka Climbing Club (as of 1st of January 2024).
Festival tickets will go on sale in December. Tickets cost between $10-$40 and clinics are added as an extra cost of $50-$150. Tickets will be available until sold out and we only have a limited number of tickets, so make sure to buy your ticket now!
What your festival ticket includes
Full Festival Ticket: $40
- Access to three days of climbing (self-sufficient or supported)
- Social night with Ground Up Brewery (quiz, speakers, vendor village, movie) venue TBC
- Participation in crag maintenance (earn free beer and burgers)
- Beta, Beers, and Banter party with BBQ (live music included) venue TBC
- Access to non-climbing activities (yoga, cold plunge, slacklining)
Half Ticket: $20-$25
- Includes the same benefits as the Full Festival Ticket for the selected time.
Youth Ticket: $30
- Similar access as a full festival ticket, however, youth access to youth-specific clinics and social climbing.
Where to stay
We will have a designated climbers camp for all Crag Fest participants at Hampshire Holiday Parks - Glendhu Bay. Most crags in the Hospital Flat Conversation Area are only a short drive from the campsite, and you will be able to walk to the party at Velo on Saturday night.
To book your camp spot, ring Hampshire Holiday Parks - Glendhu Bay at 03 443 7243 or email [email protected] to reserve your campsite for the weekend. Make sure to mention you are part of Wānaka Crag Fest for a %10 discount until 7th March. Unpowered tent sites are $20/night, and showers are $1 for 6 minutes of hot water.
Sustainability
We want to make Wānaka Crag Fest as sustainable as possible. Check out the things you can do to help us with our sustainability goals:
- Carpool with local climbers when making your way to Wānaka (ask about our WhatsApp Carpool Chat)
- Stay at the Glendhu campsite to minimise the amount of driving during the festival
- Use the Crag Fest hitchhiking spots to either catch a ride, or offer a ride to others
- Bring your own water bottle and reusable coffee cup
- Join our Saturday sustainability project to do your bit for the Wānaka environment
Festival refund policy
Tickets are refundable until 1 February 2025. After February 1st, tickets are non-refundable. Tickets are transferable to another person, but the NZAC must be advised of the new participant’s details. If we do not have their details, they will not be admitted to the festival.
In the case of bad weather, there is no postponement date or cancellation plan. The festival will go ahead on the assumption that if the weather is too bad for climbing, there are other activities in the Wānaka area to keep people amused. We will do our best to adjust the schedule to the weather and provide options and ideas of activities.
If the NZAC cancels the festival for any reason, full refunds will be available.