After almost 50 years, the Queenstown Winter Festival looks to be dead in the water.
The last festival was held in 2019 — marking the event’s 45th anniversary — before Covid scuppered its return.
Event owner, Destination Queenstown, had hired Harald Ulriksen as the new festival director at the end of ’19, but he was made redundant the following year.
Since 2020, DQ’s organised a ‘Welcome to Winter’ community celebration — along with the traditional fireworks display, there’ve been community markets, some musical entertainment, and family-friendly events over three days.
DQ chief executive Mat Woods says there’s a ‘‘small amount of funding’’ available to bring it back again this year, ‘‘but exactly what that will look like is still being looked through’’.
As to bringing back the festival proper, though, Woods says: ‘‘Although a long and proud tradition, the Winter Festival was a very expensive event to underwrite.
‘‘The last Winter Festival was held in 2019, and its return is not being considered.’’
Started in 1975 by locals Peter Doyle and Laurie Wilde, as a party for locals, over the years it grew to become an international marketing tool to celebrate the beginning of winter, worth millions to the local economy.
According to Qrious data, the 2018 festival welcomed 44,800 unique visitors, bringing a direct economic impact of $4.4 million to Queenstown.
The four-day festival the following year — the last — cost DQ more than $650,000.
