Visa Wellington On a Plate is currently on hold due to the nationwide lockdown.

Festival organisers intend on restarting as soon as practically possible with the timing and approach driven by participating hospitality businesses to the Festival. Visa Wellington On a Plate organisers have been working closely with the local hospitality industry over the past couple of days, with an industry survey overwhelmingly in support of Burger and Cocktail Wellington continuing when Wellington Region reaches Level 2, with the optimum Festival experience taking place at Level 1. (Cocktail Wellington can only run from Level 2 due dining-in restrictions.)

Therefore it is Visa Wellington On a Plate’s intention to restart Burger and Cocktail Wellington at Level 2 for those venues who choose or are able to take part. We are expecting this will be the majority of participants, however to ensure an even playing field, the all important consumer ratings aspect of the Festival will recommence at Level 1.

As there were two remaining weeks left for Burger and Cocktail Wellington to run in the Festival month when New Zealand went into lockdown, Visa Welly On a Plate will eventually proceed with these full two weeks once Wellington reaches Level 1. Any Festival activity at Level 2 will be a bonus for the hospitality industry, with Festival organisers continuing to monitor the duration of this if Level 2 continues to roll out for several weeks. There are no additional fees charged for the 2021 festival, as the one-off participant fees were made prior to the festival starting.

For Festival Events, Visa Wellington On a Plate is continuing to work with participant event organisers who wish to go ahead with their events, and postponing them for a future date (yet to be decided). All Festival Events are still part of the Visa Wellington On a Plate programme and can run at any point in the future. At this stage, there have been very few event cancellations, however, the reality is for some organisers it's not feasible to postpone Festival Events and in those cases, a refund for ticket holders will be available. Festival organisers are in regular contact with event ticket holders.

Visa Wellington On a Plate is also formulating a plan to support the hospitality industry at Level 3 (delivery and contactless pick up) in partnership with WellingtonNZ and the hospitality industry. We will have more details on this approach in the coming days as we receive more information from the government and have a clearer idea of how lockdown levels will roll out.

These approaches, as they currently stand, may quite easily change due to the ever-evolving circumstances we find ourselves in.

This is a stressful time for the hospitality industry, and we are actively working alongside them to support as much as possible. The safety and wellbeing of our hospitality community, our staff and festival goers is of utmost importance and concern. We request patience while we work through rescheduling and any necessary changes - we are aiming to keep everyone updated as soon as we can.

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