Whakatāne Events Back With A Vengeance

Friday, 4 April 2025, 8:53 pm
Article: Diane McCarthy - Local Democracy Reporter

With at least 30 events happening in the district over the next two weekends, the events scene now exceeds pre-Covid levels.

“Those numbers are huge,” Whakatāne District Council senior events development adviser Kim Fort said.

“I haven’t seen that in five years. It makes me feel like we’re back - back with a vengeance.”

She said it had taken time to rebuild, but working with the community had brought thousands of visitors back into Whakatāne, boosting accommodation, restaurant and retail sales.

“We know that events drive tourism because they’re all coming for the weekend and staying. People then realise what Whakatāne has to offer, and they come back,” she said.

Five years ago, Ms Fort saw the events position at the council advertised and just knew it was her dream job.

I’d helped running Top School as an Awakeri School parent on the committee. I thought, ‘I quite like this events malarky’.”

Starting in late 2019, just six weeks before the Whakaari eruption and on the cusp of the global pandemic, was “interesting”. Her position over the next few years became about navigating the ever-changing rules around gatherings being fed down from central government.

“It was surreal. Because I was ready to get my teeth into my role. Suddenly, instead of developing events, I had to support the events that people were trying to run with logistical, practical guidance and advice about what they can and can’t do. Everybody was coming to me for guidance. It was a challenging time, but what a great way to learn.”

It took a long time for events to build back up after that.

“Lots of food trucks stopped operating. Lots of event managers either closed their businesses or didn’t want to risk running events.

“I never felt like events had come back properly until about a year ago. It’s been a bit of a journey from the event sector point of view.”

She describes her role now as providing support, guidance and training for event managers, community groups or anyone wanting to run an event.

“Understanding who’s who in the community, what they are doing in their own community spaces and how they can work with each other to give better events.”

An example of this is the annual Light Up Whakatāne festival run by Arts Whakatāne and EPIC Town Centre in conjunction with the council.

The festival’s opening night is on July 5 this year and it will run for eight nights.

Community groups such as biking or skating groups and the miniature railway were all encouraged to use the Light Up platform to run their own activations.

"It’s about creating opportunities for anyone who wants to run an event as part of a bigger festival and get that branding. We are a smaller community, so we need to be clever with our resources.”

She is also tasked with attracting large events into town such as the Tamariki Rugby League, January’s touch rugby tournament.

“That brings about 5000 to 6000 people to town every January. We don’t have big, flash venues here in Whakatāne, so a lot of our bigger events are sports. They bring visitors and all of their teams of people along. They stay in hotels and eat in restaurants and shop.

“Next year in March the Surf Lifesaving Nationals are coming to Ōhope and that is likely to bring about 4000 people into town.”

One event that is organised entirely by the council through a combination of grants and sponsorship is the Local Wild Food Festival.

“That event has grown exponentially since it started,” Ms Fort said.

“Now, 50 percent of the people who come to that are visitors to the town. So, the economic impact of that is massive.”

As well as bringing people into the district to support businesses, event management also had a community wellbeing aspect.

“We also want to run events for our local community and look after the wellbeing of people. We know that events drive tourism and drive people to the district, but we also know that a vibrant place is important for the wellbeing of the community as well. Events create vibrancy. Especially when you have 30 of them on in two weekends.”

Among the many events in Whakatāne district this weekend will be the first three Eastern Bay events from the regional Flavours of Plenty festival. These include a Tamariki Foodie Fair, The Big Fat Greek Cypriot Feast and the sold out Late Summer Farm Kitchen.

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