New Year’s music festival eases squeeze on emergency services

The South Island’s biggest New Year’s party, acclaimed international music festival Rhythm and Alps (R&A), has acquired a fully-functioning fire engine in an effort to alleviate pressure on Wanaka’s emergency services at the busiest time of year in the resort town.

More than 5000 partygoers are expected to converge at Robrosa Station in Wanaka’s iconic Cardrona Valley each day of annual two-day event, which begins on December 30. R&A 2015 is headlined by renowned musical acts such as Shihad, Carl Cox, Katchafire and Sticky Fingers.

Festival owner and director Alex Turnbull says the decision to purchase the Hino 1986 fire appliance off TradeMe was based on his company’s ambition to develop R&A into a completely self-sufficient event.

“One of our goals as a company is to take as much strain off the community and the local resources as possible, especially the emergency services such as the police, St John, the fire department and traffic management,” he says. “Wanaka is an awesome New Year’s destination which means these resources are all pushed to the limit during this time. So Rhythm and Alps is becoming a completely self-contained festival in which we have our own staff and run our own systems.”

The purchase has come at an ideal time, with high temperatures and high winds in and around Wanaka pushing the fire danger to ‘extreme'. Six R&A site crew members will soon undergo informal training with the local fire brigade and are planning to become registered volunteer fire fighters early next year. The endeavour has been welcomed by the Otago Rural Fire Authority (ORFA).

“It’s great that Rhythm and Alps have recognised the threat of fire for their venue and have taken a measure to deal with that,” ORFA deputy principal rural fire officer Jamie Cowan says. “The ORFA has offered further support of hose and equipment for their appliance on the basis that they use local trained and qualified resources.”

Although no fires or police arrests have ever taken place at R&A, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, Turnbull says the precautionary measure is a testament to the festival’s ongoing commitment to safety. The acquisition also provides an opportunity for R&A’s organisers to give back to the wider Wanaka community – the 13-tonne fire engine will soon be parked up on Wanaka’s Kanuka Rise, one of New Zealand’s extreme hot spots and an area recognised as high risk by the ORFA.

“If a fire starts up there then the water is in the truck ready to go,” Turnbull says. “We’ll also be donating the fire engine to be used at various community functions, whether it be a school fundraiser, a sporting event or a Santa parade. We are open to ideas.”

ENDS

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