About 45,000 people will inject an estimated $57 million into the Queenstown economy over the next 10 days during the 2014 Queenstown Winter Festival, which opened with a bang last night.
A flaming ''40'' lit up the sky over Lake Wakatipu and Earnslaw Park at the end of a nearly 10-minute fireworks display, which drew gasps and cheers from the tens of thousands of people who converged on the town to take in the sights, sounds and tastes of the southern hemisphere's biggest winter party.
Immediately following the display, New Zealand band the Exponents took the stage to perform some of their best-loved songs.
Associate Tourism Minister Todd McClay said Queenstown was ''the most important part of New Zealand ... tonight'', while Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden paid tribute to all of those who had made the festival a success over nearly four decades.
She then officially opened the festival.
''Welcome to the party, welcome to Queenstown ... take care of yourselves, be very responsible, but make sure you enjoy your time in our town.''
Over the coming days, more than 70 events will be held across the resort, catering to all facets of the community and announcing Queenstown is open for winter.
Destination Queenstown chief executive Graham Budd said while it would be nice to have had more snow, ''this is a winter festival, not a snow festival''.
The event, which began as a small party for the 5000 residents in 1975, giving them something to do over the quiet winter months, had become ''critically important'' for the resort, the region and New Zealand, Mr Budd said.
It was also likely a large number of the international visitors over the next 10 days - and the coming months - would be arriving on flights from Australia. Qantas had, for the first time, become the festival's airline sponsor, and
increased its schedule from Australia, particularly Sydney, during peak winter months.
This week, Australian breakfast show Sunrise, which has a weekly audience of 3 million viewers, had been broadcasting from Queenstown, which was ''sensational'' for the resort, he said.
