Swede festival postponed following slow ticket sales
“Nothing goes to waste. We'll compost all our learnings to fertilise next year's plans, and turnip the volume in 2025 - when the swedes will be sweeter."
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Wipe Rootstock off your 2024 bingo card. It’s been postponed to 2025.
Louise Evans (Wee Magazine), Blair Savory (MASSAV Productions), and Anna Kirkwood had planned to put on a unique new Southland event on April 20 called the Rootstock Festival.
Evans said there were a couple of goals attached to the idea.
One was to create a landmark event that not only celebrates the agricultural heritage of Southland but also showcases the province’s incredible produce, culinary creativity, and sense of humour.
The second goal was to make a fuss about swedes.
“There’s a noticeable rise in Southland swede awareness across the country,” Evans said.
The organisers had received some national media interest about covering the unique event.
However, a lack of ticket sales prompted the festival organisers to park this year’s event and instead have another crack in 2025.
“Well, our swede dreams didn’t quite come to fruition this year, folks. Despite our zest and buzz to glorify the glorious swede, it seems we’ll have to press pause and let this root rest a bit longer in the ground,” the organisers said.
“A massive shoutout to GWD Toyota for riding shotgun on our swede wagon from the get-go (obviously a Toyota Hilux SR5).
“They saw the vision in our swede escapade and for that, we’re sincerely grateful. Likewise to Kathy and Dave of Wilson’s Farm who said yes without blinking, thank you. We love yay-sayers.
“Nothing goes to waste. We'll compost all our learnings to fertilise next year's plans, and turnip the volume in 2025 - when the swedes will be sweeter.
“To those who bought tickets, thank you for rooting for us. We’ll work with the ticketing agency to process those refunds promptly.
“In the meantime, if you’re looking for some curious swede creations - Ethan Flack’s Kitchen Dinners are a spectacular showcase of local produce.”
To many events in the dearer bracket .
Get sponsorship so entry is affordable.
The cost of going to this event was prohibitive.
Make it a family event and secure govt family event funding.