Festival-goers reject move idea
A proposed change of venue for the Nelson Wine and Food Festival has been shot down by punters who want it to stay in Brightwater, organiser Pete Glue says.
More than 3000 people attended the festival at Middle-Earth Vineyard yesterday.
‘‘Certainly this is the biggest crowd we’ve had,’’ Glue said.
Billed as a celebration of music, wine, food and summer, Glue said the festival was a great success.
‘‘We had a great day yesterday, the weather really came to the party,’’ he said.
‘‘It was probably one the best days we’ve had out there.’’
There were 40 stallholders, 11 wineries and four breweries at the festival.
But despite the range of quality grog, Glue said the punters were well behaved.
‘‘Really happy crowd, no hassles at all, no problems with people going over the top. They were just having a ball.’’
Live acts included Paul Madsen, Cruise Control Band, The Dixie Prix and Neal Brothers.
Glue said one of the highlights was the Nayland Primary School kapa haka group that opened the festival. ‘‘By God they were good.’’
It was meant to be the last festival at the Brightwater location with plans to move it to the Richmond Showgrounds next year.
However, Glue said the organis- ing committee will have to revisit the plan after punters ‘‘overwhelmingly’’ said they wanted it to stay in Brightwater.
‘‘I’ll tell you what, the feedback we’re getting from the punters was: Do not change it, it’s iconic here in Brightwater. ‘‘They want us to stay.’’ He said the Richmond showgrounds had shade, power on site, and would also improve walkup crowd numbers.
‘‘When you have an event like yesterday you’d look at that and say; ‘God, why change it’?’’