New Zealand Events Association General Manager Ségolène de Fontenay told The Lowdown the red light traffic regions will be feeling the pinch at a time where out of town visitation is crucial to their local economies.Īs well as the R&V community-style backlash, de Fontenay states that most of the nation’s Councils won’t go ahead with their usual summer events based on the latest Framework, “which in turn will create a drought of events, impacting the well-being of those affected communities even more and resulting in more events being cancelled.”Īn early call has already been made that next year’s Waitangi Day celebrations on the treaty grounds will be crowd-free while the 2022 Auckland Folk Festival didn’t make it to the traffic light, cancelling their event. With event size limits of up to 100 people (based on 1m distancing, seated and separated for service of food and drink), that’s not going to be enough to stand on their own two feet. While most of the North Island and all of the South Island will spend the next two weeks in orange (with no gathering restrictions if using the My Vaccine Pass), for Northland, Auckland, Taupō and Rotorua Lakes Districts, Kawerau, Whakatane, Ōpōtiki Districts, Gisborne District, Wairoa District, Rangitikei, Whanganui, and Ruapehu Districts - they’ll start off in red.
While there will be many more freedoms (for the double-vaxxed) come Friday, for a certain section of event organisers, performers and support staff - Red light still means stop. So like it, love it or loathe it - we find ourselves in a national traffic light.Īnd just like its road management name-sake, how you feel about it could well be down to not the overall benefits but what colour you're currently on.Īs festival season - and peak earning/performance capacity - looms, the reality of the new COVID-19 Protection Framework is still causing much trepidation for many who make their living off the access of live crowds to their work. Expect some announcements regarding the lineup for Easter in the coming weeks." We are already having some exciting discussions with touring talent around this period. "While we are sad that we won't be spending the New Year together, we are pumped about the possibilities of this new adventure. That positive being holding the first R&V Easter, from 15-17 April, 2022. "An incredibly stressful time for everyone involved, however, pressure makes diamonds, and our team are determined to turn this into a positive." That's why it seemed inevitable that R&V announced on social media "the sad news is Rhythm and Vines will not be going ahead this New Year due to the COVID Protection Framework settings being at RED for the Gisborne region. There was also the added pressure of Gisborne’s ability to host the 24,000 people event still weeks away from clarification - the punters were understandably itching for a decision, one way or another. It’s those travellers that are now threatening this year's event's existence.Īfter receiving a petition from locals calling on organisers to call off this year’s New Year’s spectacle and meetings with iwi leaders expressing their concerns about the possibility of visitors bringing the pandemic to Tairāwhiti’s doorstep, R&V founder Hamish Pinkham and his team were forced to weigh up their options. The catch at the time - Aucklanders would need to be open to travel to make it viable. When the Government proclaimed Aotearoa would be open for summer - Rhythm and Vines was held up by the media as the posterchild of what we should be excited about.