The Bowl of Brooklands is an outdoor concert venue on Brooklands Park Drive, New Plymouth, set within Pukekura Park. It is a natural amphitheatre with a permanent stage sited across a lake, and is operated by New Plymouth Event Venues on behalf of New Plymouth District Council.
The Bowl grew out of a proposal for a sound shell in Pukekura Park considered in 1954 and shelved, then revived in 1956–57 by New Plymouth's first public relations officer, Eric Handbury. Handbury identified the bowl-shaped valley at Brooklands — a 21.5-hectare property gifted to the New Plymouth Borough Council by the estate of Newton King — as a natural amphitheatre, and pitched the idea to the Pukekura Park Committee in June 1957. Earthmoving began on 17 August 1957, and the venue was built largely by volunteer labour with donated materials and on a minimal budget. Seating for around 4,500 was completed in time for the opening event, the first Festival of the Pines, which ran for seven days from 25 February 1958 and drew a total of 45,000 people.
The venue has hosted large audiences throughout its history, including a reported 17,500 for The Seekers in 1968, 15,000 for Split Enz in 1984, 10,000 for UB40 in 1989 and 15,000 for Cliff Richard and Olivia Newton-John in 1998. The lake has since been reduced in size to improve sightlines, and the stage and seating have been rebuilt and modernised. The venue is the home of WOMAD NZ and has hosted acts including Fleetwood Mac, Sir Elton John and Six60. New Plymouth Event Venues states the Bowl was recently named Large Venue of the Year by EVANZ.
A virtual tour of the venue is available online.
Catering, technical, ticketing and marketing services are available through New Plymouth Event Venues, so production, food and beverage and ticketing can be coordinated through the venue team.
The Bowl of Brooklands is primarily a concert and festival venue, and its scale makes it the obvious choice in Taranaki for large-scale public events. For the MICE market its value is in the Bowl Stage, which the venue promotes for formal dinners, cocktail functions, weddings, launch parties and Christmas events for up to 350 guests in a lakeside park setting. It is not a conference or breakout venue — there are no meeting rooms — but it is a strong incentive, gala-dinner or closing-night option to pair with a plenary space elsewhere among the Taranaki venues. Being outdoors and in a public park, weather contingency, access and noise planning should be discussed with the venue early.
Capacity
Nearby listings on the MICE record — indicative only, not a recommendation unless marked Featured.