Blues, Brews & BBQ's, Tauranga Round Table event a success

Organisers of the annual Blues, Brews & BBQ’s, Tauranga Round Table are hailing Saturdays festival a major success with around 9,000 people experiencing an afternoon of great music, fine ales and culinary cuisine.

Chairman of the Organising Committee, Mr Garry Waldron said that they have been following a strategy for the past three years to attract a more mature audience. This has included focussing on craft and premium ales, increasing the emphasis on the musical entertainment, maintaining a strong ‘blues’ flavour and reducing the total number of tickets sold. Our aim has been to get the festival back to how it was some years ago; friendly with a laid-back and relaxed atmosphere, said Garry.

The changes that we have made over recent years, combined with those developed for the recent festival in consultation with the Tauranga City Council Liquor Licensing team and the Police have combined to deliver what can only be described as a high quality festival experience, says Garry. The crowd behaviour was the best ever and our security and Police really had very little to deal with.

The inclusion of two new stages worked well and certainly added value, as did the larger number of bands that performed during the afternoon.

It was too soon to determine what profit had been made, but proceeds would be made available to local community groups, charities and youth activities. Tauranga Round Table has so far contributed something in the order of $1.5m to the community through funds raised at the iconic annual Blues, Brews & BBQ’s since 1996, said Garry.

While we are very happy with the results achieved, we are aware that the Tauranga City Council Liquor licensing staff did identify some issues and these will need to be worked through as part of the planning process before a final decision can be made on the future of the event.

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