Queenstown's Winter Festival has been ranked as one of the world’s Top 10 must-see festivals by a major Australian website.
Yahoo!7 Travel, which provides news, online travel guides, booking and reservation services, has rated the American Express Queenstown Winter Festival as the fourth best festival in the world.
The festival ranks higher than the likes of New Orleans’ Jazz Festival, Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls, Oktoberfest, and the Sydney and Melbourne festivals.
Festival Director Simon Green is rapt with the result and says it’s a testament to everyone who’s worked on the festival since it began in 1975.
“The festival originally started because some locals thought the start of winter was a great excuse for a party so they organised some mountain races, a couple of concerts and a ball. Everyone thought it was such a great idea that it just snowballed and people started coming from all around the district.
“Over the years it’s evolved into the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest winter party and now takes a whole year to plan!
“Some things never change though - the best thing about our festival is that it still’s still true to its roots. It’s run by the people for the people and is all about celebrating who we are, what we are and where we are. For locals it’s a great chance to get together and celebrate winter living and for visitors it’s a great time to come because town is absolutely buzzing, the ski fields are open and there’s a real party atmosphere.
“Each year we ensure there are plenty of accessible and free events to keep the community involved and this year about 75 percent of our events are free.”
For the full list of Yahoo!7 Travel’s Top 10 Festivals please visit http://au.travel.yahoo.com/tenbest/world-festivals/.
Winter Starts Here!! The American Express Queenstown Winter Festival programme is now available in hard copy and online. For more information please phone 0800 FESTIVAL (03 441 2453) or visit the Festival website www.winterfestival.co.nz.
