Events lottery continues

The organiser of Taranaki’s American car festival, which brought thousands of people to the region, says they ‘‘dodged a bullet’’ with the event falling within a 10-day period of alert level 1.

On Saturday night, following the discovery of a new community case in Auckland, a snap lockdown was announced.

Auckland moved to Covid-19 alert level 3 for seven days from 6am yesterday, while the rest of the country moved to alert level 2 for the same period.

Due to the size of gatherings being limited to 100 people at level

2, a number of Taranaki events in the coming week have been cancelled, including the Multi-Ethnic Extravaganza which has been called off for the first time in its

27-year history. Americarna organiser John Rae was counting his lucky stars the four-day event came to an end on Saturday evening, slipping in before the alert level change.

‘‘Holy s...,’’ Rae said. ‘‘Did we dodge a bullet and a half.’’

Rae was at TSB Stadium for the Americarna farewell dinner when the change in alert levels was announced.

He said about 360 people had travelled from Auckland and

Northland, and he watched many get up from their seats after hearing the news and immediately begin planning for the coming week.

Rae said some had to make arrangements for their businesses that would not be able to open, while others called hotels to extend their stay in Taranaki.

He said about 2000 people were part of the event itself and there were many others who travelled to the region purely for the show.

‘‘I rate it as one of the best, the atmosphere was just magic.’’

Whether Americarna could happen had been touch and go earlier in the month.

Rae said they found out one week before that it would be able to proceed. Taranaki had a particularly close brush with Covid19 earlier this month.

On February 14, it was announced three new community cases were discovered in Auckland and two of them had visited the Taranaki region over Waitangi Weekend.

While lines for Covid-19 tests clogged the streets near Taranaki Base Hospital the next day, residents generally stayed calm and no-one tested positive.

Like the rest of the country outside of Auckland, the region moved back to alert level 1 at midnight on Wednesday February 17.

As a result of Saturday’s announcement, many school, council and other community events have been cancelled or postponed.

This was the first time the Multi-Ethnic Extravaganza had ever been called off, Taranaki Multi-Ethnic Council vicepresident Lance Mepham said.

‘‘That is what is disappointing for us,’’ Mepham said.

‘‘But we have to be responsible.’’

The event, which usually attracts about 10,000 people, was due to take place on Saturday, March 6.

The decision to call it off was not an easy one, Mepham said.

‘‘But in the interest of our community, and the safety and wellbeing of our people, we had to do this.’’