City Council confident new garden festival will be good for city

28 November 2003

The planned New Zealand Garden Festival will be a boon for Christchurch and Canterbury and will help enhance the Garden City image, says City Councillor Ingrid Stonhill.

The chairperson of the Council’s Festivals and Events Subcommittee is confident the major new garden and lifestyle festival due to start next year will also be a strong contributor to the city.

“This festival will be good for the visitor and accommodation sectors and other support and service businesses can expect to benefit from it too,” Cr Stonhill says. “I’m confident that the festival organisers are working to ensure this annual event becomes an icon festival for the city and all New Zealand.”

Christchurch City Council identified that a major festival leveraging the Garden City image was needed. Independent advice given to the Council led to the establishment of the New Zealand Garden Festival Trust and a decision that such an event should be professionally managed.

“In promoting this festival, the City Council is wanting to help create an icon event for this city. We’re already known throughout the country as the Garden City, but we do not have an event that supports and builds on that image. The vision is for Christchurch and the surrounding region to host an annual event which is widely admired, which provides a focus for everything which is wonderful about the Garden City. I think the Trust is on-track to achieve that.”

The Council has budgeted up to $180,000 in funding for the 2004 financial year.

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