Noise negotiations puts stop to Kiwiburn 2019

The annual Kiwiburn festival held near Hunterville will not go ahead in 2019. Photo/ Stuart Munro

Next year's Kiwiburn festival has been cancelled as organisers try to negotiate noise conditions to secure long-term consent to hold the festival in Rangitikei.

Kiwiburn is the New Zealand version of the famous Burning Man festival in Nevada and has been held annually in late January for 15 years and on private property near Hunterville since 2014, after moving from Waikato.

The cancellation of next year's event was announced by Kiwiburn yesterday.Organisers said noise issues around its resource consent application with Rangitikei District Council meant it would now not be processed in time to organise the 2019 event.

"It is very important for Kiwiburn to have a positive relationship with the local community, so we are actively seeking ways to assure them that the event will not have a negative impact," a statement said.

"Balancing this with the wants and realities of what Kiwiburn is and wants to be makes it unwise to rush this process, meaning agreeing to council noise conditions which are not achievable would massively change the nature of Kiwiburn."

Kiwiburn is applying for a 10-year resource consent and said it would now take time to negotiate "reasonable and achievable noise conditions ensuring Kiwiburn can continue well into the future".

It was not certain how long that would take and organisers decided it was too late to organise and plan a "safe and successful" 2019 event.

"... this decision has not been made lightly and all possible options and outcomes have been considered."

Council chief executive Ross McNeil said an resource consent application was received on July 7 and that it was working with the organisers to decide if it needed to be publically notify the consent application and opened up to submissions.

"If we aren't to notify it there's certain criteria that need to be met," he said.

"We're absolutely supportive of this an other events coming to our district but we are mindful there is a process we need to go through."

Kiwiburn attracts just under 2000 festival-goers.

Kiwiburn has slowly grown over the years from a few hundred to just under 2000 attending recently; the growth being controlled by organisers through limiting ticket sales.

At this year's Kiwiburn two people were airlifted to hospital after falling down a nearby cliff trying to break in to the venue after hours.

In 2016 a woman ended up in hospital after a large branch fell on a tent she was in at the festival site.

WorkSafe investigated but didn't take the matter further but Kiwiburn decided to close its forest camping area for future events.

Kiwiburn organisers are now planning for 2020 and continuing to negotiate the resource consent.