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26ththJan June--32rdndFeb July 2014 2018 27
FIRST ON THE STREET
www.lwb.co.nz
No No 434 656
LAKES WEEKLY BULLETIN
J
7
IN O 1 SI BS D E
enquiries@lwb.co.nz
Last week heralded the 44th Queenstown Winter Fest. Originally started as a bash to celebrate the beginning of winter with questionable health and safety parameters, it’s become a permanent feature of Queenstown’s calendar. In some ways, the festival has changed as dramatically as the town has over the last four decades. In others, it’s still the same celebration of winter in a small alpine town. The benefits of having Winter Fest are two-fold. It reminds the world Queenstown is here and open for business and it brings our community closer together. By all accounts, this year’s Autumn shoulder season has been one of the quietest for many years - unless your business was directly involved with the Amway conference or in the construction industry. Many business people have been waiting for the winter season to kick in and reinvigorate the town. Like it or lump it, most of Queenstown’s businesses and jobs are either directly or indirectly reliant upon tourist numbers. Until the town becomes more diverse in its business sector, a quiet shoulder season is going to have a big knock-on effect across the whole community. Winter Festival has always been about welcoming the start of the winter ski season and there’s no better way to voice that to the rest of the world than by throwing a huge party with a good dose of fireworks. Drawcard events, music and quintessentially Queenstown activities attract visitors and in the social media era, ‘user-generated’ images and videos will be splashed across the internet, further advertising Queenstown. It’s a marketer’s dream.
Waka Ama arriving into Queenstown Bay for the Real Journeys Queenstown Winter Festival Welcome
(Photo: Jackie Gay)
But even if this shoulder season had been a busy one and businesses weren’t reliant on the winter visitors’ dollars, the Festival still holds an important role in our community. Festivals bring people together, give the community something to look forward to and inject a good dose of fun. It was great to see this year’s Festival focus on home-grown music and entertainment, with a New Zealandbased naming sponsor. It was a celebration not just of winter, but of Kiwi creative talent and I don’t think there’s enough of that outside of Wellington. There’s not many things that have remained the same in this region for the past four decades. The Festival still draws a strong local crowd and there’s not many other activities which can boast that. The Festival is something that the community holds in its collective memory. It harks back to the ‘old days’ before the tourism boom and it charts how the community has – and hasn’t – changed over the past 44 years. I’m sure the 44th Festival will be the same, with highlights (and weather grumbles) that locals will remember long after the tourists have gone. Bethany G Rogers
QUEENSTOWNS BIGGEST LATINO PARTY SATURDAY JUNE 30
www.qac.co.nz
WITH DJ ANDR3S FROM 10PM
JOHN RAVENS WEATHER Last week John was 95% correct
RENTAL PROPERTIES
See inside back cover for our full list
TUES
WED
THUR
Morning snow A frosty morning, A frosty morning, fine spells. fine spells. showers, cloudy.
FRI
SAT
SUN
MON
Morning frost, partly cloudy.
Cloudy with occasional rain.
Rain. Not much wind.
Rain. Light winds.