The Bluff Oyster & Food Festival will not be held in 2022.

The festival organising committee met recently to discuss this year’s event amid the threat of Covid outbreaks and subsequent possible rapid changes to the traffic light settings and voted unanimously to cancel this year’s Festival which was scheduled to take place in Bluff on Saturday 21 May.

Festival Chairman, John Edminstin said it would be “irresponsible” to host the event considering it would bring large numbers of people from all over the country to Bluff in these uncertain times. “We had hoped to be further along with our site developments and if the Club Hotel could have been demolished, we would have more space to allow better social distancing.”

“Increased compliance costs in a time when events may need to be cancelled after those costs were outlaid in advance were also a factor in the decision,” he said.

The Bluff Oyster & Food Festival draws a capacity crowd to Bluff each year with tickets for the 2021 event selling out in under one hour.

While the Festival was first held in the 1990’s the current committee ran their first Festival in 2008 and have now organised thirteen very successful annual events. The festival was cancelled in 2020 as New Zealand went into lockdown but came back as strong as ever in 2021.

The Festival Committee were due to make an announcement regarding ticket sales for this year’s event next month so no tickets had yet been sold for the event.

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