MEDIA RELEASE
March 5, 2004
Wildfoods Tickets Hotter Than Curried Pigs’ Tongue
The annual Hokitika Wildfoods Festival is still a week away and tickets are proving to be hotter than one of this year’s
new dishes, curried pigs’ tongue, says festival organiser, Mike Keenan.
Keenan says that with less than 2,000 tickets left of the 18,000 on sale through Postie Plus stores and the Westland
District Council office, “the sold out signs will most likely be rushed out on Monday.”
“The big problem will be those people travelling who expect gate sales on the day and the locals who always leave
purchase to the last minute – sadly, even a gold nugget the size of the famous Big Roddy or a keg of Monteith’s best
won’t be accepted as a bribe for tickets.
“Our committee has set a limit this year and we are sticking to it with religious fervour, in order to protect the
welfare of patrons as well as Hokitika’s infrastructure.”
Keenan believes the interest this year is greater than ever with added attractions and new dishes set to test the most
hardy of dare devil gormandisers who think they’ve been there, done that and then swallowed it.
Several television crews are arriving, some from as far away as Korea on a “believe it or not” mission of sampling
fifteen new dishes at the fifteenth festival including magpie pie, marinated hare testicles, bull semen shooters,
jellied fish eyes and stuffed seaweed.
“A new initiative is Friday night’s Feral Factor Competition where seven Coasters line up for $1,000 cash to graze
through some of the wildest dishes imaginable like silage sandwiches, live grasshoppers and hot venison curry with the
ever popular tripe sans onions as a tooth sharpener to get them started,” says Keenan.
“The supporting act on Friday night will be an Aussie/Kiwi woodchopping test for veterans, also on Weld Street, where
the stars of yesteryear will give you a thirst just watching them – some have more that 50 years chopping and sawing
experience and one competitor is 76.”
Keenan says the long range forecast bodes well for next Saturday in Hokitika with the Met Office West Coast outlook
tipping rain mid-week followed by a southwest change and northerlies, some showers in the south and temperatures around
18 degrees by Saturday.
ENDS