Media release: 24/11/2014

Gourmet Night Market Serves up Street Food with a Side of Sustainability This Summer in Mt Maunganui

Last summer’s popular Gourmet Night Market returns Friday December 5th 2014 for another summer season in its’ idyllic location: Coronation Park in the ultimate beach destination town Mount Maunganui.

With between 4-6,000 people per week visiting the Gourmet Night Market in its inaugural 2013-14 season, it’s expected to grow even larger this year requiring more food stalls and more infrastructure.

Event Manager Kim Renshaw says “This summer we have been approached by some of the best mobile food shops in New Zealand. Add to that the 14 local businesses that are involved and the Gourmet Night Market has a range of street food I’ve not seen anywhere else in New Zealand.”

Gourmet Night Market has more than 50 gourmet food stalls including a boutique farmers market and specialist dessert aisle. This year local restaurants Elizabeth Café & Larder and Satori Lounge have joined the line-up as well as local roastery Excelso coffee and the newly opened Farm Gate Deli.

“The vendors this year have raised the bar substantially. Andrew Targett from Elizabeth Café & Larder is an outstanding chef, he’s doing South East Asian street food prepared on a charcoal BBQ. And, when Excelso Roastery came up with doing Affogato, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven: slow drip coffee over locally made artisan icecream is about as perfect as you can get,” Ms Renshaw said.

Raw, healthy and vegetarian options feature strongly this year with the addition of a specialist salad bar and more organic food. This year an award has been developed for the most environmentally conscious food stall, stalls get points for serving dishes which are free range, organic, vegan and vegetarian, use zero packaging and consider power consumption.

Last summer more than 45,000 people visited the unique market over the summer, travelling from Katikati, Whakatane, Rotorua, Hamilton, Huntly and even as far as Auckland.
“This year you’ll have an even better time than last summer. We know people love the atmosphere location and community spirit, but we also realise the queues were long. Expect more food options, faster service and more waste stations.”

This year the Tauranga City Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Love NZ have supported the waste minimisation initiatives which will include a custom designed waste station set up and information about the region’s local waste stream. Kim Renshaw says that sustainability is a cornerstone value of the market and is committed to being leader in the “markets” industry. “We have a lot of markets in New Zealand, which are creating a lot of landfill waste, this could be improved as a whole.” Last year the Gourmet Night Market diverted 93.84% of its waste away from the landfill and this year their target is 99%.

But it’s not all just food and sustainability, live music is a key ingredient to the atmosphere and this season Gourmet Night Market has partnered up with the Mauao Performing Arts Centre. “We recognise that enjoying live acoustic music is exactly what you want in a relaxed outdoor picnic setting,” says Ms Renshaw.

This year the night market kicks off with singer songwriter Pete Fountain on December the 5th. Over the rest of the summer you’ll hear from a wide range of music including local world music duo Aaron & Alicesea, Jamie Fitzgerald from Taupo and legendary Auckland DJ Dylan C as well as a number of groups for the special Christmas event on Friday the 19th December: ‘Gourmet Night Market presents A Community Christmas.’ Gourmet Night Market received funding from Creative Communities this year, supporting the diversity of the event across all its aspects.

With five cruise ships departing on Friday evenings during the summer it brings another dimension to the community experience for cruise ship visitors to the region.

Ms Renshaw said “Coronation Park is just the most beautiful open space, with the backdrop of Mauao and of course the sunset. We have some incredible street food, but it’s the atmosphere and community aspect which makes the Gourmet Night Market so special, adding to the Mount as a destination town.”

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