Evening ticketed events planned for Williamson Park this summer

The outcome of a resource consent application to hold three evening events over this summer 2017-18 at Williamson Park, Whangamata will be released next month.

This application is for a one-off consent for this summer season and is separate to another resource consent application we are currently drafting for events to be held at Williamson Park over a proposed 15-year period. That consent will be lodged later this year.

The resource consent that's currently been lodged is requesting events be held on three evenings - 31 December 2017, 4 and 6 January 2018 - allowing for up to 6000 people at each event.

The New Year's event will be fenced and ticketed and alcohol-free, while the other two dates (while also being ticketed and fenced), will allow for the organiser to apply for a liquor licence.

"We are currently working with event organisers on the three evening events to finalise the details," says Garry Towler, our Whangamata Area Manager. "While the organisers are very keen to publicise these events, our recommendation has been to delay this until the consent has been approved."

We expect a decision on the consent for this summer's events in September.

"Because the application process for the 15-year consent will take some time, a separate one-off resource consent needed to be lodged to ensure events could be held during the 2017-18 New Year period," says Mr Towler. "Last December we had Shapeshifter perform at Williamson Park, which was an outstanding success in terms of behaviour and crowd attendance numbers, and we anticipate that any events that occur this summer season will be the same," he says.

This summer there will also be Whangamata Summer Festival events run throughout the day, which includes volleyball, sandcastle and ice cream eating competitions, yoga, beach digs, free kids holiday programme activities, Opera in the Park, a night market and a huge craft market day.

In June we asked for public feedback on a separate proposed resource consent application, which would be for a period of 15 years, to protect the existing traditional events held at Williamson Park to ensure that they can continue to run in the future. That draft proposal suggested a total of 20 day events and 10 evening events.

We received 206 submissions on the proposal, with 131 in favour and 68 opposed. The remaining 7 didn’t indicate a preference either way.

"We need to apply for resource consent because the rules relating to festivals and events in our Proposed District Plan have recently been amended," says Mr Towler. "The rules now require that any event where 500 or more people gather for a festival or an event will require resource consent," he says.

We now have independent planners working on the proposed 15-year resource consent, which we expect to lodge by the end of the year. The consent will go out for public notification, which means all interested parties will have a chance to submit to the application.

You can read about the proposed 15-year consent here.

© Scoop Media