Port seafood festival pulls in a crowd

I can remember my fiirst food/wine festival experience with the same chagrin that many of your corespondents seem to be expressing...however, I now realise that the costs associated with planning, hosting (and ensuring the success of) such festivals is high. I note in Wednesday's paper Peter Cole mentioning the cost of marquees and toilets - one needs to add to that add the cost of security, entertainment, marketing, transport amongst the myriad of other costs (and remember that excludes the true cost of the thousands of hours of labour involved in the planning). Add to this the support provided by sponsors (especially Port Otago, as I'm sure the site cost would have been prohibitive)

Unfortunately I was unable to get to the festival until later in the afternoon, however even  then I felt that I recieved excellent value for my $25.   

Yes, it is sad some of your correspondents found their 'experience' did not represent value for money, however this is indicative of the consumer society in which we live. And as a previous correspondent alluded to, we all have different expectations.  

I look forward with anticipation to the next festival (but please...more trains)!  

I'd assume that the organisers were looking to cover their costs and maybe even make a slight profit, so given the limited capacity of the venue there was likely the need to charge a slightly higher entrance fee than a traditional wine and food festival (Bluff Festival's $18, Clyde's $10) where several thousand more attendees can be accommodated.  They still managed to attain a full house by charging $25 so it looks like they did their homework. And lets not forget that the timing of the event highlights that the target audience was the tourist market as opposed to the local audience and 25 NZ $ doesn't equate to that many pounds/euros.

Asiseeit,

Having attended festivals as you say 'all over the world', I have never had such little value for money. Of course it's a great idea, they just need to sort out the entry fee so more people can attend and get their money's worth.

Festivals all over the world charge for entrance, but this hasn't dawned on the people of the deep dark South.

Congratulations for starting a festival of this size and scope. It takes people with a bit of guts to try and start something different.

It can only get better and you can always say you went to the first one.[Abridged]

Good: Lots of children enjoying themselves. Good music. Good venue. Bad: People with prams and dogs in tight crowds, people with large back-packs rudely swinging around, Ticket-tek surcharge of $2.50 for nothing in return, Insufficient coffee providors, Some food a rip-off, Lack of fresh fish. Poor volunteer at door letting people in for free while busy yakking to his mates. Overall a great idea, but please learn from this year's mistakes and cut the entry fee!

I agree that the transportation option was very nice.  I would recommend that it be offered as an option next time and not included in the price for everyone (ie, for those who walked to the festival or those driving themselves).  

Something for the organisers to think about for next year: Being locals we would have loved to support the festival and leave with a full tummy to justify the entry fee. At $25 dollars per person (with no complimentary tickets or vouchers) for "just being there" this sadly and strictly turned out to be an event for the well-to-do. Sounds like people who went in did not get such great value for money, either. No unusually great variety of seafood, as one would expect in a celebration of such.

Just as well there were other activities on around Port Chalmers keeping this little family busy enough. [Abridged]

The entrance fee was to take care of the free transport e.g. train and buses from Dunedin and the advertising etc. It was the beginning of a seafood festival. It is a brilliant idea for Port Chalmers.

I was quite excited to attend the seafood festival with friends.  We are all students at the University of Otago.  We purchased tickets at the Regent Theatre for $27.50 each for 8 people (We did try to get a student discount, but this was not offered). 

Imagine our surprise when we found that this price was just to walk in the door.  We still had to purchase food and drinks at prices which were perhaps slightly discounted, but not by much.  For example, a small sample of seafood chowder in a tiny cup was $2.50 and a glass of wine was $8.00.  To enjoy the seafood, we had to dig into our pockets again and again and we each spent at least $15.00 - $20.00 for a basic amount of food.  

For the amount of money that we spent at this event, we could have had a very expensive meal at a fine restaurant or we could have stayed in a decent hotel.  With proper organisation and reasonable prices, this would have been quite nice.  Unfortunately, we just left feeling ripped off.[Abridged]

I felt like we were conned out of $50 for me and my partner's tickets. How dare they just charge us that much without a single thing in return? They did not even have the decency to arange a complimentary platter or drink. They took the money and did nothing. 

The food inside the festival was tastless, burnt and bland. Apart from the clams there was not a single fresh peice of fish or seafood to be seen. We were expecting fresh seafoods of all sorts laid out on ice, available for purchase. No one even had the sense to do a proper bowl of steamed mussels or a local fish fillet pan fried in some butter served up in a sec. What about some fresh tuna marinated in lemon juice or charcoal grilled groper steaks rubbed in a spicy curry marinade? Instead there was a lot of other food that you always see at the Dunedin Farmers Market. 

To add insult to injury, the food inside was so outrageously overpriced it was as if it were cooked by a five star chef. We paid $8 for a couple of tablespoons of paella which was undercooked and more like a risotto. I feel ashamed that it was even called a local seafood festival, the only thing festive was cash drawers going Ka-ching.

It was a wonderful idea that needs to keep going. Let's have a fish market once a month.

My wife and I are always keen to support community-based activities, so duly purchased two tickets ($50) and went along on Saturday.

Sadly we left a little later feeling a little "ripped off".

Either the organisers need to get a little more creative with the entertainment, include complementary wine/food vouchers, or reduce the fee.

Sadly we will not be attending a future event if it is to be a repeat of Saturday's.

There were heaps of locals who couldnt even afford to get in to see what's on our back door. $25 was a rip off. I looked at it from the free vantage point of the lookout. It would have been nice to actually get in for a look though.

I and my friends had a fantastic afternoon at the festival.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the atmosphere was great.  The food was brilliant, and there were some free samples on offer at some of the stands.  A number of stallholders also had cheap tasters available as well as full measure serves at higher (but not exorbitant) prices.  The queue for the crayfish was long all day, and I suspect the vendor in question will be better prepared next year.

The entertainment was good, although I am not much of a Sam Hunt fan.  I guess in this respect you are never going to please everyone.

All in all a very good event.  No doubt there were some lessons to be learned by the organisers, but for a first time effort I give it 8 out of 10.

I found the Seafood Festival extremely poor value for money. At $25 a ticket, I did not get any complimentary tasters. The band was depressing and Sam Hunt was a poor choice. The food stalls were great but the lines were huge. At a cheaper price such as $10 a head it would've been value for money but at the price it was I will definitely not be returning.