Queenstown Celebrates Winter as Festival Breaks Records
June 22, 2015

Queenstown could see multiple records broken following a stellar start to the American Express Queenstown Winter Festival. Coronet Peak has reported a 50% increase in skiers up on the slopes for the first weekend of the Festival, while virtually all Festival events have seen record, sell-out crowds.

Bright sunshine and deep snow on the mountains have proved to be a magic combination for Festival organisers who have seen more participation and more spectators than previous years across many of the Festivals more than 50 events. The SKYCITY Ball later this week sold out within one hour of tickets going on sale and Saturday night’s American Express Comedy Debate saw 20 additional corporate tables being installed at the Queenstown Events Centre to meet record ticket sales.

Coronet Peak today reported that all trails and facilities were open well ahead of schedule due to great snow cover with ski numbers up 50% compared to the opening weekend of the Festival last year. The fact that all of the Coronet Peak runs were enjoying near perfect snow meant that the extra numbers could be handled without any major delays being experienced by skiers.

The snow failed to dent passenger numbers flying into Queenstown airport where managers are forecasting a 7% increase over last year’s Festival numbers. The increased passenger forecast numbers include over 15,000 visitors from outside New Zealand and a total of over 46,000 during the Festival period.

“This puts us on track for one of the best Festivals ever” said Festival Manager Lisa Buckingham. “Everything has worked like clockwork. We had contingency plans for the big snow, but in the end it just fell up on the mountains and left the centre of Queenstown 100% open for business.”

The American Express Opening Party and Fireworks saw more than 10,000 visitors stream into the town centre on Friday evening with numbers also up for the American Express Street Parade on Saturday and yesterday’s Hits 90.4 Birdman competition.

“This strong start reconfirms that the American Express Queenstown Winter Festival truly is the Southern Hemisphere’s largest celebration of winter” said Destination Queenstown CEO Graham Budd. “Every year Queenstown’s global reputation for scenery, adventure, the creative arts plus great wine and food gets stronger. The Festival is the perfect vehicle to present all of our best attributes in one amazing package.”

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