Kiwiburn cancellation a surprise
The cancellation of New Zealand’s answer to the Burning Man festival over resource consent issues has caught a district council off-guard.
Although Kiwiburn organisers said they were unable to solve consent problems, Rangitı¯kei District Council officials say the resource consent was applied for only a month ago.
Kiwiburn, a multi-day art and performance festival, held outside Hunterville since 2014, will not go ahead in 2019.
In a statement posted online on Monday, the organisers said they were unable to get a resource consent from the council due to noise problems.
But in a statement yesterday, the council said it only learned of the cancellation via social media.
Kiwiburn’s consent expired in 2018 and a new one was needed.
But a 10-year consent was only applied for in July, the council said.
The event had grown significantly since 2014, and there had been noise complaints from neighbours – eight in the past two years – so the council was trying to figure out if the wider community should be involved in the consent process.
It would have been either a limited-notification process or a non-notified consent process, the council said.
The council had employed an acoustic consultant to provide advice on what effect noise from future Kiwiburns could cause.
Kiwiburn organisers had also been asked for information about noise mitigation, the council said.
The consent application was still live and in progress as of yesterday. ‘‘[The] council would welcome the opportunity for Kiwiburn organisers to come back to the table, and continue with the resource consent process for the 2019 event.’’