A new director is at the helm of the Akarua Arrowtown Autumn Festival as it enters its 37th year.
Catherine Fallon’s been announced as the new festival coordinator, replacing Carole Watts who’s organised the event for the past six years.
With over a decade of events experience, Fallon’s no stranger to the joys and jams of the industry.
She’s currently Destination Queenstown’s Southern Lakes events manager, this year organising Welcome to Winter and managing the Southern Lakes regional events fund.
Previously, she was Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce’s long-standing events and marketing manager.
Fallon says she’s ‘‘thrilled’’ to now be involved in the iconic event and looking forward to delivering a world-class event for the region.
‘‘It’s been a tough two years for the events industry so it’s great to see town buzzing and a vibrant, action-packed events calendar scheduled for the next 12 months.’’
She’s well aware being ‘‘super-organised’’ is key to pulling off such a large event, but says she’s looking forward to seeing ‘‘everyone having a great time’’ once it’s underway.
‘‘It’s all about trying to make things runs smoothly, so once you finish running an event, there’s definitely quite a buzz to achieving it — you can look back and say it went well.’’
Autumn Fest’s long history has cemented tried-and-true events like the parade, market day and Pie, Pint and Pinot, but there are also a few new additions in the works.
‘‘The programme’s got so many different types of events happening, from sporting to cultural — a whole variety of areas.
‘‘And [the festival’s] got a strong committee — they’re all fantastic, enthusiastic Arrowtown people involved in the community … which is nice because there’s a lot of structure already in place as well as some great ideas floating around the table.’’
In terms of her vision for the festival, she’s hopeful her experience will only help to improve an already much-loved event.
‘‘It’s a community event, run by the community, for the community, but I’m looking at the funding model, [and] in that structure it’s getting challenging, especially because we rely on 80 volunteers at each festival.
‘‘It’s really just having a look at its structure and streamlining it, so my background from a commercial perspective and in corporate events will help with that,’’ she says.
She’s got her fingers crossed the five-day event, canned this year due to Covid restrictions, won’t face any such setbacks come April 20.
‘‘Town’s been dead for two years, so it’s just exciting to see the Autumn Festival, and all of the other different events, coming back to town, and just the enthusiasm of organisers and people wanting to attend events — the community getting together and going to events has really been missed.’’
