When: A Saturday in April
Where: Waterfront Drive, Mangonui, Doubtless Bay, Far North
Nominal entry fee
Events
- 50 stalls with a variety of food, wine, art and education
- Many groups performing at the Wiltons Stage throughout the day
- Jazz band under the pohutakawas
- Radio Network - Classic Hits road team
- Mayor's tug-o-war
- Tokerau Beach Boys Paddle Board Celebrity Challenge
- Circus Skills demonstrations
- Bouncy Castles
- Paint ball range for children
- Face Painting
- Harbour mini-cruise
AND MUCH MORE.
About the Waterfront Festival
It was billed as a farewell to summer, the last chance to enjoy a long afternoon and evening before the end of daylight saving, but there was nothing autumnal about Mangonui’s second Waterfront Festival on Saturday 6 April 2013.
Once again, the road frontage was closed to traffic for the duration of the event. A crowd that reportedly topped 4,000 before the day ended poured into the street from north and south, the parking organised at ITM proving significantly inadequate less than two hours after kick-off. By 2pm the primary grounds had been opened up too, but were filled in little more than half an hour.
If 2012’s inaugural festival was an unqualified success, which all agreed it was, Doubtless Bay Promotion Inc’s second attempt was a stunner.
The 2013 celebration of all things Far North, from wine and food to music, art and shows of strength, saw stalls stretch from just north of the Old Oak Inn to the wharf, offering everything from wine and food (including dishes from Thailand, South Africa, Mexico and New Zealand, the latter featuring salmon and paua fritters) to bromeliads and apple trees, honey and condiments, garden art, even discounted dishwashing liquid.
For all those who needed a break from it all there was massage and, for the conscientious, an opportunity to switch from one electoral roll to the other. There was also a mini-cruise on Mangonui harbour on the Zig Zag Catamaran and a tour of the Butler Point Whaling Museum and 1840 homestead and gardens.
For the more testosterone-charged there was the chance to flex some muscles, and perhaps rediscover some long forgotten ones, in tug-o-war, while on the water the Tokerau Beachboys cleaned up in the paddleboard relay race.
Mayor Wayne Brown, who only had to step out his front door to be in the thick of it, revealed hitherto unknown musical talent when he took the stage with the Hangi Stones, Mangonui’s ukelele ensemble, between starting the tug-o-war teams and taking his place in the paddleboard relay.
For travelers coming from out of the area, buses from Paihia and Kaitaia to Mangonui were provided.
Of course a massive undertaking like the Mangonui Waterfront Festival could not take place without the support and assistance of many community-minded people and organizations which have either donated funds or their time to making this another successful venture.
And special mention must also be made of an organization which comes in for more than its share of flack and adverse publicity; without whose support the Festival would not happen. That is The Far North District Council. From the Mayor down, the FNDC, the Te Hiku Community Board and the many District Council staff and Departments that were dealt with - were all great. The FNDC is pivotal in making this event happen each year.
