Festival draws to a close

The Dunedin Rhododendron Festival has drawn to a close with over 50 events taking place over the past nine days. For the first time in the events 26 year history the event took place over Labour Weekend and Festival organisers are thrilled with the extended version of the programme.

Festival Co-ordinator, Victoria Bunton, said “It has been exciting to see so many people involved with the festival this year. The weather has not been particularly kind over the last nine days but it didn’t dampen the spirits as people celebrated the city’s rhododendrons.”

Festival guest, Dennis Greville, judged the photographic competition and the winners are:
OVERALL WINNER: Jen van Waard
OPEN SECTION WINNER: Roger Clement
SECONDARY SECTION WINNER: Scott Marshall
PRIMARY SECTION WINNER: Mitchell Bruce
Over one hundred entries were received for the competition which is now being coming a popular part of the festival. All winners receive vouchers from photo competition sponsor, Jonathan’s Photo Warehouse.

Festival organisers will now spend the next few weeks evaluating the festival and determining how many people were in attendance. This will include collating numbers of out of town attendees. An Air New Zealand Festival Grab A Seat promotion will have helped to lift these numbers as packages to the festival were on sale last week from Auckland and Christchurch. A number of people took up this opportunity and came to Dunedin over Labour Weekend.

Background
The Dunedin Rhododendron Festival has a well established history as a favourite community event. In 1984 a week long celebration focused on the Botanic Gardens' Rhododendron Dell, which is acknowledged as one of the world's most significant plantings of rhododendrons. Today the Dell covers 15 acres of land where there are over 3500 rhododendrons comprised of 178 species and over 200 named hybrids.

The Dunedin Rhododendron Festival is now a weeklong celebration that encourages residents and visitors to the city to experience and enjoy Dunedin’s rhododendrons and gardens. This is achieved by creating a well-balanced programme of events relating to rhododendrons, gardening and associated leisure activities.

ENDS

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