If you have a ticket to Rhythm and Alps but no vaccine pass, the festival's director says there's no point trying to get in. 

The Wanaka music festival starts today and will be one of New Zealand's biggest destinations for New Year celebrations. 

Sister festival Rhythm and Vines, and other popular festival Northern Bass have been postponed until 2022 because of Covid-19. 

Festival director Alex Turnbull said Rhythm and Alps sold out yesterday morning. 

The first day of Rhythm and Alps music festival has kicked off in the Cardrona Valley. Photo / George Heard 

The event hosts 10,000 people at once, but with a mix of three-day and daily tickets there'll be 24,000 festivalgoers in total. 

Turnbull said people are encouraged to upload their Covid-19 vaccine passes before arriving, and staff are following procedures closely. 

"So, you know, it'd be pretty hard to be fraudulent, and if someone doesn't have their conditions of entry sorted, that's the way it's gotta be." 

About 6000 people are expected to camp at the festival, and about 40 per cent of festivalgoers are believed to be travelling there from other regions. 

"The high vaccination rates in Otago really gave us a lot of encouragement, but mainly we stuck to NZ Music, and didn't rely on the borders and didn't rely on international artists to complete our programme," Turnbull said. 

However, there were losses to the line-up, as a result of problems caused by the pandemic. 

Sampa the Great was not able to leave South Africa as all flights were cancelled, and Harriet Jaxxon, Lenzman, CC:Disco!, and Bradley Zero weren't able to get MIQ rooms to enter New Zealand. 

Nevertheless, Turnbull said he was proud of the mostly Kiwi line-up, that would support New Zealand music. 

The first day of Rhythm and Alps music festival has kicked off in the Cardrona Valley. Photo / George Heard 

Drug-checking at some festivals 

While drug-checking services are now legal at festivals, high demand and low equipment stock has meant some festivals are going without. 

Know Your Stuff has experienced high demand as it puts on drug-testing pop-ups across the country this month. 

Managing director Wendy Allison said gathering test results had given an insight into what was out there. 

"Eutylone, which is the substance that was causing most of the trouble last year, is still around. It doesn't seem to be in quite as much quantity [as last year]," Allison said. 

"There are a couple of new cathinones that have been detected in the last couple of months and just in the last couple of weeks as the MDMA pills are reappearing." 

Know Your Stuff will have two of its spectrometers at Twisted Frequency Festival this week in Nelson. 

- by RNZ