Covid 19 coronavirus: Cancellations hit South Island events

25,000 people attended the Electric Avenue music festival in Christchurch's Hagley Park on Saturday. Photo / George Heard.

A raft of events planned in Christchurch over the next week have been affected by the shift in Covid-19 alert levels.

Auckland has moved to alert level 3 for seven days and the rest of the country to level 2.

The Selwyn Sounds music festival planned for March 6, featuring Stan Walker and Hello Sailor, has been rescheduled to April 10.

The Christchurch Armageddon Expo will also not be going ahead this weekend, with organisers announcing they are confirming new dates with the venue but it will not be held this month or next.

Otago's annual Motatapu race has been cancelled in the wake of the change of alert levels.

Motatapu Events Ltd directors Gemma Peskett and Craig Gallagher said the team had made "the incredibly disappointing decision to cancel the 2021 event", scheduled for Saturday, March 6.

The Crusaders rugby game against the Hurricanes on Saturday at Christchurch's Orangetheory Stadium will now go ahead this Sunday with fans allowed if the alert levels do change when expected.

The Silver Ferns' four-month Constellation Cup series with Australia, starting on March 2 in Christchurch, will be affected.

Netball New Zealand has yet to announce its plans but the games in Christchurch and Tauranga next week will have to continue without fans.

Christchurch's largest outside musical festival went ahead with 25,000 attendees before the Covid-19 announcement on Saturday.

Christchurch rapper Scribe performed at the Electric Avenue music festival in Christchurch on Saturday. Photo / George Heard.

The Golden Shears, the international shearing and woolhandling championship, has been cancelled for the first time in 61 years.

The upcoming Grand Final of New Zealand's National Concerto Competition has been postponed, with a new date yet to be set.

But the show goes on at the court theatre, where plastic screens have been put between audience rows to enforce physical distancing.

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has postponed its scheduled concerts on March 4-7 in Wanaka, Invercargill, Dunedin, Oamaru and Ashburton.

The orchestra will look to reschedule the concerts later this year.