Twist of fete for Garden Marlborough

With no ‘‘in-between event’’ possible, plans for Marlborough’s garden festival event forged ahead through the uncertainty of alert levels this year.

And with record sales two weeks out from the event, they’re glad they did.

Now in it’s 27th year, Garden Marlborough has sold more tickets than ever before in spite of being in the midst of a global pandemic, and with no international tourism.

With most of the programme finalised before Covid hit, Garden Marlborough President Tim Crawford said they had continued planning through both the initial lockdown and the second outbreak in Auckland.

‘‘We wouldn’t be able to hold this event if we were in level two, so we just kept firing ahead as though we were going to be out of level two,’’ he said.

‘‘I was confident that we were going to pull through and get to the other side.

‘‘And the thing is if we had stopped at any stage of the planning we wouldn’t have been able to get the ball rolling again.’’

He said they also would be forced to cancel the event if there was another outbreak and the region moved up the alert levels.

In spite of the Covid-risk and the closed international borders, they had already sold 3000 tickets to individual tours and workshops, and were expecting around 2000 visitors.

‘‘Our ticket sales are higher than they’ve ever been ... and over half the people are from outside the region.’’

Many ticket holders had written in to say they understood the heightened risk of cancellation due to Covid-19, and would still come to Marlborough if the event was cancelled.

In previous years they had international visitors from Australia

and the UK, but this year’s event would be only domestic visitors.

‘‘This year we had a couple of tour groups booked, but they obviously haven’t been able to come,’’ he said.

‘‘I think we’ve had up to 150 from Australia.’’

The event of garden workshops and tours would run November 5 – 8, and classes would need to be booked ahead of time.

Some workshops, such as floristry fundamentals with Nina Stanley, and a gin masterclass with Elemental Distillers’ Ben Leggett, had sold out early. But there were still tickets available to many of the classes and tours, as well as the Garden Party on Saturday night.

Some highlights

would include workshops on sustainable gardening, including ‘creating ethical and sustainable foodscapes’ with Pablo Gregorini and ‘starting a no-dig organic garden’ with Yotam Kay.

With around 160 stalls, the Garden Fete on Sunday, November 8 was the only non-ticketed event. Crawford said they were expecting 10,000 people to come through Pollard Park for the fete.

BRYA INGRAM/STUFF Garden Marlborough organisers Alice Taylor and Tim Crawford are glad they continued planning Garden Marlborough in spite of Covid-19.