Rain not a festival dampener

You could be forgiven for thinking up until yesterday afternoon Arrowtown Autumn Festival director Carole Watts had a hotline to the weather gods.

Many commented the crowds at this year's Arrowtown Autumn Festival were the largest yet.
Many commented the crowds at this year's Arrowtown Autumn Festival were the largest yet.
Forecasted heavy rain on Saturday meant the organiser decided to relocate the festival's popular market - part of the street parade event - from its usual spot, on the Library Green, to the Ramshaw Lane car park, so as not to destroy the grass on the reserve.

The rain arrived right on schedule, bucketed down overnight on Friday and persisted while stall-holders were setting up from 6am.

It eventually started to ease and, as if it had been ordered up, the sun came out about noon, stayed until the festival parade finished, and then the skies opened again soon after.

Thousands of people lined Buckingham St and Centennial Ave to take in the sights of this year's parade, led by two town criers and followed by the Southern Lakes Highland Pipe Band.

Buckingham Belles, the Arrow Miners Band, vintage cars, emergency service vehicles, hundreds of children, dogs, goats and "police horse" Slide, ridden by his owner Sergeant Kate Pirovano, of Queenstown, took almost an hour to walk the parade route, with millions of photos and videos taken as they slowly made their way through the town.

The 35th annual festival drew to a close yesterday. It had included the sold-out Pie, Pint and Pinot festival, also shifted to the Ramshaw Lane car park, and the New Zealand Gold Panning Championships.

However, Ms Watts' weather luck ran out about 2pm when more predicted rain arrived, prompting umbrellas to open en masse and gazebos to be hastily erected to shelter ticket-holders.

Sergeant Kate Pirovano, of Queenstown, feeds her horse Slide (19) an ice cream at the festival...
Sergeant Kate Pirovano, of Queenstown, feeds her horse Slide (19) an ice cream at the festival.PHOTOS: TRACEY ROXBURGH
Ms Watts said while the decision to use the car park had been a last-minute one, it had proved popular with stall-holders and festival-goers.

"It's been really, really encouraging the feedback we've had. I haven't heard anything negative [about the new location]."

She was also delighted with the success of this year's five-day event, which appeared to be one of the most popular to date.

"It's really hard for us to gauge [crowd numbers] because we don't measure anything other than attendance at our [ticketed] events, but it seems like a lot more [people] to me.

`We're really pleased. It's awesome."

Add a Comment

 

Advertisement