Motatapu race expected to qualify for govt support

The organiser of the annual Motatapu race between Glendhu Bay and Arrowtown expects it will qualify for a government scheme to support summer events.

However, the tight timeframe requirements of the scheme leave other events such as the Alexandra Blossom Festival in Central Otago out in the cold.

Motatapu Events Ltd co-owner and director Craig Gallagher said he was feeling a ‘‘little bit of frustration’’ as he waited for more details.

This year’s Motatapu race, scheduled for March 6, was cancelled in February following a change to Alert Level 2.

The only opportunity for people to traverse the Motatapu, Glencoe and Mt Soho high country stations, the event is now set down for March 5 next year.

Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash said last week the ‘‘events transition support scheme’’ was aimed at giving organisers of large summer events greater confidence to plan and incur costs, given the risk of Covid-19 public health measures forcing them to cancel or postpone.

To qualify, events must be held at a single location between December 17 and April 3, and have already been promoted or be offering ticket sales.

The scheme will cover 90% of unrecoverable costs for paid, ticketed events with audiences of more than 5000 vaccinated people.

Mr Gallagher said he welcomed the scheme, but had asked for more information about the eligibility criteria.

‘‘We have just under 4000 athletes, but they each generally bring a ratio of 2.5 supporters/spectators, so from what they’ve said, we do believe we would be eligible, which is great news.’’

He knew of other events that would probably miss out because their organisers had delayed taking registrations while waiting for the Government to release more information about vaccination certificates.

He hoped officials would be flexible over eligibility and, in particular, supported events with a proven track record.

Alexandra Blossom Festival event manager Martin McPherson said the scheme was clearly focused on supporting large-scale summer festivals such as Rhythm & Vines.

Uncertainty about Covid-19 alert levels had led to the cancellation of this year’s festival as the event fell outside the Government’s intention, which was to support large-scale festivals such as Rhythm & Vines.

‘‘It doesn’t help us — if Blossom Festival was in December we might have asked for something.’’

The festival had received some Government Covid-19 relief funding, but it was not a ‘‘huge amount’’, he said.