Big names expected for final Pack the Park
“We’re so grateful for the people all around New Zealand who are coming back for the event and the new people participating for the first time."
What: Pack the Park 2024
When: January 27, 2024
Where: Rugby Park and ILT Stadium Southland (Gala after match)
January’s final Park the Park promises to be a star-studded thank you to the community as the Southland Charity Hospital draws closer to its official opening.
Five years on from the late Blair Vining’s original bucket list game, Pack the Park 2024 will be played at Invercargill’s Rugby Park on Saturday 27th January.
In 2018 Blair was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bowel cancer and told he had only weeks to live.
That was the beginning of a courageous mission, alongside wife Melissa and daughters Della-May and Lilly, advocating for those impacted by cancer - a journey which included the establishment of the Southland Charity Hospital in 2019.
The most-capped player and youngest-ever life member of Winton’s Midlands rugby club, Blair’s love of the game was the catalyst for Park the Park, which was first played in front of 650 people in Winton in 2019 and a year later attracted 6,000 to the second edition at Rugby Park.
It’s a game which brings together big names from across New Zealand sport and entertainment, along with many of the people who knew and loved Blair best.
While lips are tight about who will be running out onto Rugby Park in January, some of the names from the past two editions have included former All Blacks Mils Muliana, Ma’a Nonu, Stephen Donald, Jimmy Cowan, Corey Flynn, Israel Dagg and Sir Graham Henry.
Former All Black prop John Afoa has already been confirmed as a starter in 2024.
The game included an emotional haka by Blair’s beloved Central Southland College first XV and an impressive performance by former All Black Carlos Spencer.
Spencer helped the Blair Vining XV to a 54-17 win over an Invitational XV which featured an equally eye-catching outing by Troy Flavell and boxing superstar Joseph Parker as waterboy.
Melissa Vining said the line-up across the Blair Vining XV and Invitational XV again promised to provide plenty of entertainment.
“We’re so grateful for the people all around New Zealand who are coming back for the event and the new people participating for the first time. Pack the Park would also not be possible without our generous sponsors and supporters.
“This final Pack the Park is to celebrate the community’s fundraising achievement to build the hospital. It’s exciting and humbling that the community has helped me tick off Blair’s dying wish and we’ll be able to open the hospital early next year for Southland and Otago,” Melissa said.
Melissa said it was exciting to see the Southland Charity Hospital, which will initially provide colonoscopies and dental care for those across the Te Whatu Ora southern zone who are unable to access public or private care, nearing completion.
More than 3,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in New Zealand each year and 1,200 will die from the disease. Southland and Otago has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the country.
“It’s incredibly exciting seeing the final stages of the hospital coming to fruition, with a recent highlight of taking Southland and Otago nurses through the completed operating theatre.
Another heartfelt moment was when the landscapers came all the way down from Taupo to lay everyone’s bricks and seeing all the special messages people have included on their bricks,” Melissa said.
January’s Park the Park will be free to the public, with tickets now available at ticketek.co.nz, with the grandstand already sold out, but still room to fill the terraces to the brim.
Both the game and a gala after-match function at ILT Stadium Southland feature a range of sponsorship opportunities.