Festival gets chop

Rotorua’s GLO festival is being discontinued due to “escalating costs and declining public satisfaction”, Rotorua Lakes Council says. The event, which has previously been held on New Year’s Eve, started in 2012 and was last held in 2019, with the 2020 and 2021 events cancelled due to Covid-19. Rotorua Lakes Council deputy chief executive for community wellbeing, Anaru Pewhairangi, said community feedback on events had shown a steady decline in public satisfaction with the GLO festival. “The cost to stage events of this type has escalated since then, and the fact there is a raft of large events of all types coming to Rotorua during the next four months was also a factor in deciding to retire GLO.” The Rotorua Night Market will be running a family-friendly event on New Year’s Eve, and will be similar to a whānau event held in 2020, which offered entertainment and food trucks.