WORTH A SHOT: Harrison Collings having a crack at winning $50 by lobbing a tennis ball into a drum. Photo: Danielle Collings
WORTH A SHOT: Harrison Collings having a crack at winning $50 by lobbing a tennis ball into a drum. Photo: Danielle Collings
Jodi Betts (Somersault Event and Project Management) might not have been joking when she said she was looking forward to taking a week or two before starting work on organising next year's Mangonui Waterfront Festival.
Organising the annual farewell to summer is certainly a big job involving a veritable army of people, but the results were as rewarding on Saturday as they have been every other year.
Jodi had been hoping for a bigger crowd than last year's whopper, and was right on the money. Calculations on Tuesday were that just under 5000 people had supported the event, and whatever the final figure it would be an increase on 2014. There were more stalls too - 87 in total, while nine of the businesses within the festival's boundaries opened their doors as well.
And the festival was blessed with a sunny weather window.
"Setting everything up on Friday was a bit of a challenge," Jodi said, "but it was all good on Saturday."
The official debriefing had yet to take place but it seemed that the Lions had been run off their feet parking cars and ferrying festival patrons to and fro, she added. And the role they played had once again been key.
"A lot of people make this event possible, and every one of them does an important job well, but the Lions really do make a huge contribution. I don't think people realise just how many people are working flat out behind the scenes in one capacity or another."
She had also been pleased to see a little more activity out on the water this year, and the merry-go-round had been a great success.
HORSING AROUND: Harrison Collings having the ride of his life on the merry-go-round. Photo: Danielle Collings
WORTH A SHOT: Harrison Collings having a crack at winning $50 by lobbing a tennis ball into a drum. Photo: Danielle Collings
"People could look through it and see what was happening, whereas a bouncy castle [which wasn't there this year] blocks the view," she said. "And the merry-go-round certainly added to the village atmosphere. The site makes it a little difficult to set everything up, but it helps create the feel we're after, and ensures that people spread out.
"We also try to encourage visitors to support the festival as well as locals, and we seem to be succeeding in that. We've had interest from entertainers in Auckland and Wellington but we want to keep it local, and we will keep making little changes every year to keep it fresh. There's a lot of talent up here, more than enough for a festival like this, and some people were still trying to get involved just before it began."
There had been some very "happy" people as the afternoon drew into evening, she added, but everyone had been well behaved, and the Taipa Area School recycling ambassadors had done a great job of encouraging people to use the rubbish and recycling bins.
There were still some improvements to make and some challenges to meet, "but we'll work on those as we plan for 2016," Jodi said.
