29 July 2019

The inaugural Winter Forest Festival set to take place in Rotorua this weekend

The magic of Rotorua's Whakarewarewa Forest in winter is being celebrated with the launch of a new event, the Winter Forest Festival this weekend.

The festival is replacing the Winter Mountain Bike Series and features a running, walking, gravel road cycling and mountain biking event.

We Run the Forest and Gravel Royale are taking place on Saturday, while the Winter Mountain Bike Classic is on Sunday with an expo, food and a DJ throughout the weekend.

We Run the Forest features a 21km, 10km and 5km run or walk, whilst Gravel Royale offers 17km and 42km road cycling options. The Winter Mountain Bike Classic offers 15km, 30km and E Bikes, and 45km mountain bike courses.

NDuro Events Director Tim Farmer said the new festival is a celebration of the forest, as mountain biking and running are the most popular recreational uses of the terrain.

“The key objectives of the festival are to enhance the physical & mental well-being of our community by means of physical activity in a positive environment. We are also striving to have a positive economic impact for the Rotorua economy during the low season.”

“The festival has exceeded our forecast by 109 percent with nearly 4000 attendees over two days in the world famous Whakarewarewa Forest in Rotorua, without any major partners supporting the inaugural event.”

We Run the Forest and Gravel Royale have sold out, with limited entries still available for the Winter Mountain Bike Classic.

The Winter Mountain Bike Classic has taken over the Winter Mountain Bike Series and has exceeded previous years entries, while there has been significant growth in entries for We Run the Forest also.

93 percent of Winter Forest Festival participants are travelling from out of Rotorua, with the top three cities being Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga.

Registration for all events starts at 5pm on Friday, commencing a highly anticipated weekend at the Winter Forest Festival.

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