Wine and food festival called off

BLENHEIM: Next February’s Marlborough Wine and Food Festival has been cancelled.

It is the first time in the event’s 36year history it has been cancelled, but the possible lingering challenges over Covid19 posed too much risk.

Marlborough Winegrowers Board chairman Tom Trolove said it had been a tough decision that would affect businesses in the area.

‘‘But the board was clear that in these unprecedented times, it had to prioritise the safety of the harvest.’’

The oneday harvest festival is owned and run by Wine Marlborough, and usually attracts up to 8000 people.

Wine Marlborough general manager Marcus Pickens said planning had been well under way, but they had to ensure the harvest went ahead without risking community transmission of Covid19.

The industry faced severe workforce challenges this year as strict lockdown rules hit as the harvest was just starting.

‘‘It’s really about the risk from holding an event so close to our harvest period.

‘‘We get one opportunity to get the grapes off the vines and into the wineries, and that was really the biggest threat to us, and bringing 8000 people together on the one site in New Zealand’s largest wine region was really something we thought was too big a challenge to overcome.’’

Marlborough’s wine industry makes up almost 78% of the national grape harvest, and accounts for at least 80% of all exports, at present worth $1.923 billion a year. — RNZ