Outrage as festival cancelled

The organisers of the failed Waikato Cherry Tree Festival say they will do everything they can to hold the Waikatobased festival next year and will allow this year’s ticket holders in for free.

NZ Pure Tour, the company behind the Waikato Cherry Tree Festival, went into liquidation on Friday — the same day the multicultural festival in Tamahere was supposed to start.

Imran Kamal at Liquidation Management has been appointed as the liquidator. The first report is due to be released on Friday.

The 10-day event was cancelled on Thursday after it failed to get resource consent from Waikato District Council in time.

NZ Pure Tour founder Paul Oulton, who runs the event with his partner Dong (Anne) Cao, said it was heartbreaking to have to cancel the event when people had travelled from Tahiti, Australia and Auckland to attend.

Oulton claimed the liquidator would be in touch with all the ticket holders. “We put a huge amount of time and money into this multicultural community festival, which is loved by all, of great economic benefit to the area with most visitors coming from outside the Waikato, and of large potential to attract international visitors,” Oulton said.

It is understood 3000 tickets had been sold before the company collapsed.

People took to social media to express their outrage at the event being cancelled. A family day ticket for the weekend was $52 and an adult ticket was $30.

One would-be-attendee said he had spent more than $300 on tickets and food for his family of seven to attend the event and had also booked a hotel for the weekend.