Kiwi Festival celebrates Plenty in the Bay

The Bay of Plenty is to celebrate its wonderful coastal lifestyle and world-class produce with a nine day Kiwi Festival taking place from February 26 to March 6, 2010. The 20 festival events, some new, some already existing, will celebrate the Bay’s natural beauty, produce from the land and sea and the cultures, talents and interests of Bay communities.

The festival will launch on Friday 26 February with the ZESPRI Industry Challenge– a top town style industry event in Te Puke, celebrating the lead in to the kiwifruit harvest then The Grand Banquet raising money for Child Cancer, will be held at the Sebel Trinity Wharf,Tauranga that evening.

The following day the Maketu Kaimoana Festival, an existing event on the Bay’s events calendar will celebrate their 3rd year running and it promises to be bigger and better than ever with delicous seafood and Kiwi Festival music ambassador Regan headlining the main stage with his unique blend of reggae and roots.

Sunday is a FREE, big day out to Fiesta in the Park, Jubliee Park, Te Puke – “The Kiwifruit Capital of the World”. Highlights include kiwifruit inspired Guinness World Record attempts, with a challenge open to the public; the fastest person to peel and eat one kiwifruit. (The current world record is 5.4 seconds) and other kiwifruit inspired activities.The public can also look forward to the Iron Chef Cook Off between sports celebrities using only local ingredients from the Bay and food and drinks, arts, crafts, plus great music and entertainment. People can even travel to Fiesta in the Park by steam train. Train enthusiasts, friends and families will have the opportunity to ride the train driven by a 60 year old J class engine iron monster “The Bay of Plenty Steamer” with up to four return trips from the Mount to Te Puke. Other steam train excursions are being held during the festival, including a Pacific Coast day tour the following week.

Kiwi Festival also includes sports events for all ages and supports the existing Tauranga Multicultural Festival and the One Base Fishing Tournament. A Lifestyles of the Bay art exhibition is to be held in collaboration with Creative Tauranga launching a few days prior to the festival on Tuesday 23 February.

Kiwi Festival 2010 will conclude on Saturday 6 March with a fabulous Carnival – a celebration of global culture and music. Carnival is BIG in every sense of the word. Arguably New Zealand’s hottest live act, Kora will take centre stage and be supported by other festival favourites including Batucada Sound Machine, Tahuna Breaks, Kantuta and local Bay favourites Tauranga Samba and Regan, presenting the perfect blend of homegrown and South American inspired music. Live street art, rovers and stilt walkers, Capoeira and samba performances are all part of the experience, and that’s just for starters. People are encouraged to dress up in outlandish Carnival costumes with awesome prizes to be won for the best dressed. Set in Wharepai Domain on Cameron road, Tauranga this will be an epic day in the sun with the gates opening from 3pm.

Kiwi Festival was founded by Coastal Bay of Plenty Charitable Trust and the trustees plan for the Kiwi Festival to be an annual event, starting locally and becoming an international branding opportunity to promote the coastal Bay of Plenty. The Trust has appointed Jamie Joseph as Kiwi Festival Director who has staged festivals in Europe and South Africa and has now joined her family in Tauranga where she resides indefinitely.
All details about Kiwi Festival 2010 can be seen on www.kiwifestival.co.nz.

For more information contact:
Kiwi Festival Director Jamie Joseph: cell 021 361 054, or email; Jamie@kiwifestival.co.nz

Background information
The festival, developed by the Coastal Bay of Plenty Festival Charitable Trust, follows more than a year of detailed planning by various industry and business groups by way of a steering committee including the CEOs from Priority One, Tourism Bay of Plenty and Creative Tauranga and other company and key community representatives.

Launching the Festival, Trust Chairman Bill Bracks said the Trust’s vision for Kiwi Festival was to promote the coastal Bay of Plenty as the horticultural food bowl of New Zealand and a wonderful place to live, work and visit. Most people in the community would not be aware of the very important contribution various industry sectors make to the local and national economy, he said.

“Eighty percent of the New Zealand kiwifruit crop was grown in the Bay, with more than $1.45 billion in sales and $800 million returned to growers. Twenty percent of the region’s GDP came from kiwifruit and related goods and services with 20,000 people employed in the industry. Total investment in orchards and infrastructure was conservatively estimated to be more than $3 billion. About 9,000 workers over a season earned about $215 million in net wages which boosted local small town economies, with some funds going offshore to worker communities”, he said.

“Twelve million trays of avocado are expected to be harvested, worth $250 million over the next decade. Horticulture leaders have begun an industry-wide study, with plans to double that sector's economic value to $10 billion over the next decade.

Comvita, the country’s most successful producer and marketer of Manuka honey and natural products for medical and skin care applications, is recognised internationally for its outstanding products. The Grove avocado oil was pioneered in the region and is sought after by discerning food lovers and chefs.

Not only do we have great food from the land and sea, we are also blessed with outstanding natural, clean and beautiful scenery. A very important festival component will be to promote and encourage respect for the environment,” Mr Bracks said.

He said the Festival will become very significant for the region. Independent economic analysis estimated that the Festival could conservatively generate $4 million of added value revenue.

The Kiwi Festival would celebrate the beginning of the kiwifruit harvest, recognise the current and future potential of other regional produce and position the region as the centre of natural, high quality nutritional products. Events will support tourism strategies and local industry efforts in recruitment and talent development. During the Festival, Creative Tauranga (CT) will hold an art exhibition involving 30 local artists from the Bay, invited by CT, Kiwi Festival and Bay of Plenty Times.

ZESPRI International Chief Executive Lain Jager said the New Zealand kiwifruit industry was an international success story with its heart in the Bay of Plenty.

“ZESPRI is proud to support the Kiwi Festival by taking an active role in celebrating all that the Bay of Plenty has to offer. The Festival kicks off six weeks prior to the start of the kiwifruit harvest in New Zealand, so I hope many of the 20,000 people involved in our industry join in the festivities for nine days of fun, education and excitement.”

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