The start of New Zealand’s winter season is synonymous with one unmissable celebration in Queenstown and with100 days to go, the Real Journeys Queenstown Winter Festival is getting ready to enthral and delight.
Enjoyed by Queenstowners since 1975, the festival is welcoming all visitors from near and far to ring in the season of ski and snow from June 18-21 and join the town in celebrating its 46th birthday in style.
Festival director Harald Ulriksen says this year’s festival is set to bring a line-up of both old and much-loved favourites, along with some new and exciting additions.
“The Real Journeys Queenstown Winter Festival is created by Queenstown, for Queenstown, to showcase Queenstown and what it’s got on offer – and that’s exactly what the 2020 line-up is going to do.
“We’ve created an unmissable four-days that includes everything from the much loved mountain madness, music and antics on Lake Wakatipu’s shores through to new fun-fuelled activities and there’s even a health and wellness twist – it really does showcase our backyard and all its beauty,” he says.
Festival goers can expect signature events at Cardrona like the 1.2km pure adrenaline fuelled Monteith’s Dog Derby, the MoreFM Day on the Bay with the bone chilling Go Orange Splash for cash and crowd-drawing Winter Festival Birdman and the SKYCITY Ball, back again with an exciting and very much secret location. The full programme including a new, stellar music line-up will be announced on April 17.
Harald says the 2019 festival is currently a finalist in the NZEA Event Awards for New Zealand’s best regional event and best event in New Zealand.
“Last year’s festival brought almost 57,000 visitors to town and injected around $9.9 million into Queenstown’s economy, which wouldn’t have been possible without our family of local and national sponsors.
“We are more than excited to be working with them again to bring the biggest winter celebration of the decade to Queenstown this year,” he says.
