Crankworx Rotorua 2019 dates announced

The dates for Crankworx Rotorua 2019 have been announced. Photo/File

The dates for Crankworx Rotorua 2019 have been set and will see the festival run for six days.

The 2018 festival ran for nine days and the idea of a more compact festival was brought up at a Rotorua Lakes Council meeting earlier in the month.

The dates were announced on the Crankworx Facebook page earlier in the week and the festival will run from March 19 to 24.

Crankworx World Tour - Get Ready for Crankworx Rotorua 2019

Let's keep the mid-festival stoke flowing! HUGE NEWS >> We're officially headed to New Zealand March 19-24th for Crankworx Rotorua 2019. Swoop the early bird tickets now: http://bit.ly/2KUCEXU

Posted by Crankworx on Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Early bird tickets to the festival, which is the first stop in the 2019 Crankworx world tour, are already available.

The Crankworx website says the first day will give spectators free access to the Dual Slalom event on Tarawera Rd while tickets will be needed for the final five days of the event at Skyline Rotorua.

Events at Skyline include Air DH, Pump Track, Dual Speed and Style, Slopestyle, Downhill and Kidsworx events.

Event director Ariki Tibble spoke at Rotorua Lakes Council's operations and monitoring committee meeting on August 3 and told the committee a big focus of the 2019 event would be the Enduro World Series which would attract more of the world's top athletes.

The secondary School Cross Country event at Crankworx Rotorua 2018. Photo/File

The worldwide audience was also rising, he said. In 2018 11.6 million people tuned in, up from 11.4 million in 2017 and 4.6 million in 2015.

Rotorua Lakes Council provides a grant of $75,000 per year to Crankworx and underwrites the event to the tune of $500,000.

The underwrite called upon in 2015 was $94,000 and in 2016 was $39,000. The underwrite was not called upon for the 2017 or 2018 events.

Crankworx Rotorua is run in conjunction with the Canadian organisers of the event, Crankworx Events Inc and not-for-profit company Mountain Bike Events Ltd.

Ticket prices
Available until December 31
• Early bird family general admission ticket $99 + booking fee and GST.
• Early bird adult general admission ticket $49 + booking fee and GST.
• Early bird child general admission ticket $29 + booking fee and GST.
Available from January 1 to March 24, 2019
• Family general admission ticket $160 + booking fee and GST.
• Adult general admission ticket $75 + booking fee and GST.
• Child general admission ticket $35 + booking fee and GST.
• Visit www.crankworx.com/rotorua/tickets.