Sun, sounds and a serious thirst mark Marchfest
Marchfest celebrated its first ever sold-out show, with more than 3000 tickets sold.
Organiser Lea Boodee said the numbers weren’t fully tallied up yet, but over 3500 people attended the event.
‘‘We sold all our gate-sale tickets, and a lot were sold in prebookings,’’ she said.
The headline acts, The Immigrants and Hollie Smith, were a hit with crowd that had been queuing up before the gates had opened.
The gloomy start to the morning soon cleared up to beautiful sunshine and clear skies.
‘‘The weather played its part, and everything went really well,’’ Boodee said.
‘‘We sold a lot of tickets online before the event, so the weather didn’t put anyone off at all.’’
Nelson locals Jazz Genova and Jemma Martin said this was their third Marchfest event.
‘‘We love it, we’re having a great time,’’ Genova said.
As well as the scheduled performers, attendees were treated to the Ragged Crows morris dancers, who attend the festival every year with a colourless but musical performance.
Roger Dunham, one of the Ragged Crows, said the crowds were the best he’d seen.
Despite the boozy theme to the festival, there was no misbehaving and crowds were happy to enjoy the music and the 22 new craft beers available.
‘‘Everyone was well-behaved, it was a great event,’’ Boodee said.
Nelson local Jason Long said he went to the festival every year, and it was always great.
‘‘It’s good, it’s been a good day so far and it’s still pretty early.
‘‘Grab a few beers, bring some mates along, what’s not to like?’’
Boodee said the even also drew a lot of people from other regions to the area.
‘‘I haven’t had a good look at the numbers yet, but it’s much more than there has been in other years
‘‘Not just for the festival, but for the whole beer week event. So that will have been great for the local economy,’’ she said.
She said they would be spending the next while going over the festival to help them plan for the next one. More pictures, pg 7