New Zealand may be suffering hard economic times, but you wouldn't know it from the number of festivals arriving over summer.

Every week, it seems, more and more artists are announced for one or other of the many bashes now on between new year and Easter, and I guess we can only be glad that the relatively high Kiwi dollar is making it so attractive for them to come to these shores.

It appeared not so long ago that big festivals were on the wane after we went through a patch where such events regularly fell over, leaving the unedifying sight of famous musicians either cancelling, turning round at Auckland airport and heading home, or grumpily denouncing festival organisers on the nightly news.

Ten years ago there was serious consideration that such large-scale events were simply not feasible in this country.
How times have changed.

WOMAD has recently announced its line-up for next year and it is as impressive and baffling as always.

This time there is no big Mavis Staples sized act heading the bill, but rather a massive collection of dazzlingly varied ethnicities, only some of which can be guessed at from the names.

Sharon Shannon, the Irish accordioniste is coming, and also playing at the Wellington International Arts Festival, which has also just announced a huge line-up of extravagant events.

Master Drummers of Burundi are – presumably – pretty much what their name implies.

Le Trio Joubran, meanwhile, are Palestinian practitioners of the oud (which is a bit like a lute). And there's a mass of stuff from various African countries, South America, India, you name it.

It's – again – a remarkable line-up, with the New Zealand contingent including Paul Ubana Jones, Batacuda Sound Machine, The Utes, Black Seeds, and Neil Finn's new project Pajama Club.

The festival takes place in the middle of March.

Much closer and sooner, however, is the Ragamuffin Festival which, in its fifth year, is well on its way to becoming one of the world's top reggae festivals. And it's just down the road in Rotorua.

Taking place on the long weekend at the end of January, Ragamuffin has just added Jamaican superstars Sly & Robbie – veritable dub and reggae legends – to an already extensive bill that includes Marvin Priest, Ali Campbell's UB40, Grammy-winning hip-hoppers Arrested Development, Hawaiian reggae man J Boog, Bob Marley's bluesiest guitarist Junior Marvin, and homegrown talent such as Cornerstone Roots, Katchafire, House of Shem, Kora and many more. It really is quite remarkable, and it's brilliant to have it so close.

Of course, if you can't wait for the end of January for your reggae fix then there's one coming that's even sooner and closer: the Exodus 2012 Festival takes place on new year's eve in Papamoa and features a host of Kiwi acts including Katchafire, House of Shem, 1814, Ardijah and Sons of Zion.

In recent times the country has gone hog wild with new year's eve festivals, so having one right on our doorstep is great. But they're everywhere.

The popular Rhythm and Vines festival in Gisborne is now into its ninth year and has been so successful that they're planning a sister event this time down in Christchurch called the Rhythm and Alps festival.

There's a new year's eve festival in Martinborough featuring Fat Freddy's Drop, Kora, Donovan Frankenreiter, Sola Rosa, Katchafire and more; there's Coromandel Gold with Shapeshifter, Shihad, The Black Seeds and more; there are festivals in Matakana, Paihia, Puhoi, Queenstown, Opoutere, in fact just about everywhere you look there is a massive new year's festival.

All in all I'm actually kinda surprised at just how many events are on at a moment when nobody apparently has any money and times are tough all over.

There are also an ever-increasing number of ‘winery' tours, which don't actually come to a winery in Tauranga, but take place on the Domain. I'll come back to look at those in the next few weeks.

I'll also be back with some new music. With only 37 or 51 or three or some damn number of shopping days till Christmas it must be time for some present recommendations. And, with brilliant new albums from Ry Cooder, Tom Waits and others around, it won't be hard.