Until now, Queenstown had been excluded as a festival venue.
The board and trustees behind the Festival of Colour had sought to focus their energies on the Upper Clutha, before they branched out to venues such as Clyde, Glenorchy, Bannockburn, and Arrowtown last year, trustee and former board chairman John Beattie said.
At the Festival of Colour annual meeting in Wanaka yesterday, arts director Philip Tremewan said Queenstown was being considered as a host venue on the eve of a performance of one of the festival's most successful commissioned plays in the resort, next weekend.
"We're dipping our toe into the Queenstown water" he told those at the meeting.
Le Sud, which premiered in Wanaka last year before it went on to win national drama awards and tour arts festivals around New Zealand, will play in Queenstown next weekend.
Mr Beattie said a deliberate approach to exclude Queenstown from the festival had been taken by the board since the trust's inception in 2001.
The festival had planned to stand on its own two feet without any assistance from the Queenstown Lakes District Council "which was always anticipated".
During the past nine years, as the festival has gone from strength to strength, the QLDC had come on board with financial assistance, and a relationship between the arts event and the council had grown, Mr Beattie said.
"Circumstances have changed and the council is far more sympathetic to the aspirations of the board. We didn't feel that we had to aggressively position ourselves in Queenstown and wanted to prove ourselves in Wanaka and the Upper Clutha first.
"We're robust and confident after the success of our last two festivals and the council has recognised what we've achieved," he said.
The festival board wanted to develop its relationship with the council and adding Queenstown to its growing list of venues was a step in the right direction.
"We want a relationship which mirrors those of New Zealand's other successful arts festivals, which are backed by their respective councils," Mr Beattie said.
Festival of Colour board chairman Nick Brown said the trust's financial situation for next year's event was looking healthy, despite the recent tough economic times.
Two plays had been commissioned for next year's festival, Mr Tremewan said.
