Golden Bay Cultural Food & Wine Festival “was awesome”’
Golden Bay's Cultural Wine & Food Festival. Photo: Cory Griffiths.
Last week’s inaugural Golden Bay Cultural Food and Wine festival in Pohara was an unqualified success and organisers are already making plans for next year.
“We’ve booked the bands and Te Radar wants to come back,” said spokesperson Terry Knight. “He had such a good time that he’s appointed himself Golden Bay’s ambassador to the North Island.”
Terry said that 1500 tickets were sold and that the stallholders who supported the festival were very happy.
“I’ve had lots of very positive feedback,” he said. “The big crowd meant that a serious amount of food was eaten. Many food stalls sold everything, or nearly everything, they’d brought. That’s great, but the best thing about the whole day was the atmosphere. It was Golden Bay at its very best – a happy crowd having a very good time. There was absolutely no sign of any trouble, no broken glass and very little rubbish. Bruce [Richmond] is delighted with the way the site has been cleaned up.”
Terry said that some bills would come in over the next short while, so a final financial result is not known yet, but the indications were very promising. With the minor improvements already being planned, the festival seemed likely to go from strength to strength as more and more local producers became involved.
Charlie Haskell (photo middle right) from East Takaka was attracting plenty of favourable comments at his caravan promoting “The Good Oil” and his locally grown olives.
“We’re just getting started,“ he said. “We’re a boutique operation, growing six varieties of olive in the microclimate up at East Takaka. Frantoio is the variety that seems to do the best.”
Andrew Dixon from the Mussel Inn said the event had been “all good for us.”
“When we go to gigs like this we aim to cover our costs and gain some good exposure for our products,” said Andrew. “And we exceeded our expectations on both counts. It was a nice day, the crowd was very happy and I was glad that Te Radar and Martine were so open to bribery. I just strode up to the stage and thrust a bottle of Captain Cooker into their hands. They went off on a great promotion of our beer.”
John Pearse’s Wood and Paua stall was very busy.
“The festival was awesome,” he said. “The weather had a lot to do with it. They were a big happy crowd - people came from all over. I had customers from Nelson and Richmond as well as plenty of locals.”
John said that he was pleased the organisers included arts and crafts in the attractions. He also appreciated the fact that all of the stallholders were local people.
“It’s about showcasing the best that the Bay has to offer,” said Terry. “That’s what we set out to do. Not all the stalls sold out but everyone got some really good exposure at a successful and enjoyable event.”
Neil Wilson
