Beer festival now in February

COVID19 has once again wreaked havoc with plans for the Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival.

The festival, already postponed once, has been pushed back to run during Waitangi Day weekend on February 4 and 5.

Festival director Jason Schroeder said the decision would give organisers time for the Government’s new traffic light Covid19 management system to come into effect.

It would also allow time for more clarity about how vaccine certificates would be used.

“We know that under the Covid19 protection framework, the event will be able to go ahead without any crowd number limits once we are at level Orange or Green.

‘‘All attendees will be required to have been vaccinated and present a vaccine certificate to gain event entry at both levels. Therefore, we encourage all of those wishing to attend the event to get vaccinated.”

The festival had already previously been postponed from October to December.

There had been careful consideration about postponement dates and collaboration with other event organisers, and while there might be other event clashes, the festival had limited options available, Mr Schroeder said.

“While we would love to be able to run the festival for Dunedin, we also recognise that we would not be able to do so and deliver the quality event and diverse range of music and food and beverage offerings that you have come to love without people being able to travel across the country.

‘‘The reality is that moving the event dates to Waitangi weekend provides some level of certainty for all of those involved and buys time for our vendors who are still impacted by current restrictions, to get back on their feet.’’

Tickets for the present dates will be automatically transferred to the new dates. Friday to Friday, Saturday to Saturday respectively.

Refunds are available via Ticketmaster for those who are no longer able to attend due to the date shift. The refund period has been extended until 5pm on Tuesday, November 30.

Minor changes to the vendor list and entertainment lineup will be released in due course.