Rangiora Winter Festival

RANGIORA WINTER FESTIVAL 2017

We are hoping to build upon what was a very successful first Festival with our second Rangiora Winter Festival in July 2017.

We are hoping that anyone with a strong connection to Rangiora and the North Canterbury region will donate to a fantastic charitable Festival! Whether you were born here and are now in New York, London, Sydney or have some relatives and friends here then you are exactly who we need help from!

Donate and see either your name or a loved ones name go up on a BANNER at the Festival as one of the sponsors that made an event happen. If we can raise just $1000 we can guarantee a free event! We want to make the Giant Obstacle Course Bouncy Castle free for everyone! Your loved ones can attend the Festival and see their names on the big banner as supporters that made that event happen! The more money we raise the more events we can run!

We have all of the best from last year plus some exciting new ideas. Key sponsors are back on board this year, including Farmers, and we have just confirmed a new sponsor! Singapore Airlines has generously come “on board” and will provide a very exciting prize for this year’s festival of 2 free Air Tickets.

The same philosophy is in place for this festival. Our focus, as a registered charity, is on providing as many fun, free activities as possible for North Canterbury residents in a central Rangiora location. Our hope is to establish the Rangiora Winter Festival as a long-term event, self-sustaining, and we aspire to a world class event with small town flavour and character. We also nominate a charity to donate to every year and this year it is the incredible child mentoring charity Big Brothers Big Sisters North Canterbury.

We intend to have our incredibly popular Ice Rink back for 4 days from the 27th-30th July, a Friday night Cocktail event, a Saturday Festival on the 29th July including ice sculptures, snow, fun activities, live music, a food market, stalls, and brand new this year a Saturday covered “farmers market” in the High Street.

We also have a wish list, dependent on sponsorship, of things like fireworks, a High Street fashion show, an extra festival day and lighting displays.

Who is the Rangiora Winter Festival Team?

We are local residents. Parents, business owners, employees. A group of volunteers who want to create a fun festival for our region and residents. We have no affiliation with any other organisation or group and work very long hours, for no financial gain, to make the festival a reality.

Karl Horwarth

Nicholette Kilgour

Sarah Broughton

Matt James

Padi Nistala

Leanne Newsome

Chris Gudsell

Phil Anderson

Alun Hassall

Sam Smith

Tessa Keeling

Benefits to the Community

The 2016 Festival we believe was a great success. With an estimated 7000-8000 people attending from the Canterbury region it was both an exciting event for locals and an attraction for those in the wider area, including Christchurch, to see what was on offer in North Canterbury.

Our strong marketing drive to the Christchurch market had obvious and quantifiable benefits for the region as there were a steady stream of vehicles all day on the Lineside Rd approach to the town. One of our main sponsors, Mitre 10 Mega had an increase of over 10% in sales on the day. Other local retailers also reported increases (eg New World 3-4%) and local hospitality venues, including Winniebagoes, Monteiths, Joes Garage and Fools of Desire, all reported considerable increases over normal trading (between 200%-300%).

The event was unusual in that it was a centrally located event in the town. Most larger events are held on the outskirts and anecdotally reduce revenue for local businesses in general. By seeking a central location, we aim to make the Festival attractive to local businesses as well as truly accessible to all in the community. With 92 sponsors involved last year in a variety of ways (volunteering, donations, assistance, sponsorship agreements) we believe both businesses and locals see the benefits of that location.

Last year’s event involved a wide range of community groups and we aim to continue that this year. We involved Rotary, the Lions, the Young Leos, Scout groups, a local seniors Marching group, school music bands, a local hip hop group as well as taking on a number of local volunteers for assistance on the day. It was a true community Festival involving a wide range of people, businesses and groups!

This year we hope to extend that community aspect to even more groups including cultural groups.

As part of our larger, longer term view we would also like to extend the Winter Festival to the greater Waimakariri region: “The Waimak Winter Festival”. To this end we have had discussions with Kaiapoi and Oxford groups.

Sincerely,

Trustees: Rangiora Festival Trust (Karl Horwarth, Sarah Broughton, Matt James, Nicholette Kilgour)