MEDIA RELEASE: Tuesday, 26th October 2021. Due to the recent Government updates and the subsequent COVID-19 Protection Framework that was disseminated last Friday, The Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival has made the hard decision to once again postpone the Festival, from Friday, 3rd and Saturday 4th December 2021 to Waitangi Weekend, on the 4th & 5th of February, 2022.

“We believe that this decision will give us, as Festival organisers, the space we need for the government's Protection Framework to come into play, as well as provide some clarity on how the Vaccine Certificate will be mechanised and its impact on you, our loyal attendees”, notes Jason Schroeder, Festival Director.

“We know that under the COVID-19 Protection Framework, the event will be able to go ahead without any crowd number limits once we are at level ORANGE or GREEN. All attendees will be required to have been vaccinated and present a Vaccine Certificate to gain event entry at both levels. Therefore, we encourage all of those wishing to attend the event to get vaccinated”.

There has been careful consideration around postponement dates and collaboration with other event organisers, and whilst there may be other event clashes, the Festival also has limited options available, noting all the parts that need to come together to make the Festival possible.

The Festival prides itself on the diverse range of breweries, distillers, wineries, food vendors, artists and suppliers involved in this iconic event. Annually it hosts between 25 to 30 vendors from the North Island, who collectively bring around 115 staff to the Festival. All musical acts are based all over the country, a number of suppliers come from the North Island, and the event hosts a large number of event attendees from all over Aotearoa.

“While we would love to be able to run the Festival for Dunedin, we also recognise that we would not be able to do so and deliver the quality event and diverse range of music and food and beverage offerings that you have come to love without people being able to travel across the country. The reality is that moving the event dates to Waitangi Weekend provides some level of certainty for all of those involved and buys time for our vendors who are still impacted by current restrictions to get back on their feet”, concludes Schroeder.

Tickets for the current dates Friday, 3rd and Saturday 4th December will be automatically transferred to the new dates. Friday to Friday, Saturday to Saturday respectively. 
Refunds are available via Ticket Master for those who are no longer able to attend due to the date shift; the Refund period has been extended until 5 pm on Tuesday the 30th of November.

Any refunded tickets that can be reallocated will be distributed via the Ticketing Waitlist on TicketMaster. For those who missed out initially, join the waitlist for potential tickets here.

For those travelling from out of town, the Festival advises all ticket holders to watch Air New Zealand channels as they continue to monitor the situation and impact caused by continued restrictions.

Minor changes to the vendor list and entertainment line-up will be released in due course. 
Additional FAQs with regards to the postponement can be found https://dunedinbeerfest.co.nz/faqs/

The Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival is presented by Liquorland and brought to you by Radio Hauraki and OUSA.

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