Photo courtesy of the Rotorua District Garden Festival
A grant of $7000 from the Rotorua Trust is helping to broadcast the message about the Rotorua Festival of Gardens to a wider audience.
The festival, which has been running since 1993, is scheduled for 15-17 November this year. Organised by the Rotorua District Garden Festival Incorporated, work is already underway to ensure the message gets out to a wide audience in towns and cities throughout New Zealand.
Festival chairman Paul Shaw says the Trust’s grant is being put into marketing the event to ensure it grows and provides more money for its chosen charity, the Bay Trust Rescue Helicopter.
A committee of eight give their time to organise the event, and 40-50 gardens are open to ticketholders for a one-off $30 cost for the three days. Ticketholders receive a booklet and a map so they can find the gardens, allowing them to visit them all or only those that they select.
The group gave the helicopter trust $15,000 last year from surplus funds and is hoping to do at least that or better this year.
“But we also look at it as a charity for the people of Rotorua and the visitors in that we don’t charge so much and make it accessible to everybody in the community.”
A big team of Rotorua people pull together to make the festival a success, including garden owners who also give their time in preparing their gardens and being on site for the three days of the event.
Sales of tickets last year were 1100 and about 500 of those people were from out of town. It is hoped ticket sales will reach 2000 with the additional promotion the Rotorua Trust funding has made possible.
For more info:
Paul Shaw, Chairman
(07) 332 3733.
www.rotoruagardens.org.nz