South missing out on millions

• Published date: 04 November 2021
• Publication title: Southland Express

It was announced on Monday Southern Field Days was to be cut from next year’s calendar, the news coming less than a week after the cancellation of the Burt Munro Challenge.

Both would have been held in February and typically bring thousands of people to the region.

While held a little later in May, the Bluff Oyster and Food Festival Committee has decided to hold off on any decision on the 2022 event until at least December, if not January.

Committee member Kylie Fowler shared her ‘‘exasperation’’ with the Southland Express about trying to plan an event when there was so much uncertainty.

Anyone aged 16 or over will be able to download digital vaccination certificates for use in New Zealand and overseas through My COVID Record from the end of November.

However, Ms Fowler said there was concern around vaccine passports and how the use of these would work at large events if they were mandatory, as well as being able to keep the 700 volunteers who might not be vaccinated or not want to be around people who have travelled from other regions.

Of the some 3500 visitors, most came from outside Southland.

‘‘Wait and see is all we can do.’’

Great South’s tourism general manager Bobbi Brown has been a dairy farmer for 20 years and understood how gutted the rural community must be about the cancellation of Field Days.

The previous Field Days had more than 40,000 people attending, and Ms Brown explained it was a major social event as well as retail opportunity.

It was a shame economically, but she also stressed how important the social aspect was.

‘‘It’s sad it’s off the radar but the second thing is around the fact it’s important right now people can socialise, especially for the rural sector when everyone has come out of calving and lambing.

‘‘It’s a shame economically but also a shame for the well-being of our rural sector.’’

For those attending, it was an opportunity to have everything you might need in one place, while contractors, retailers and shops used it to sell their products.

‘‘They’re going to have to be creative to find a new vehicle to sell their stuff.’’

The Southern Field Days committee, for the first time in 40 years, cancelled the 2022 event as it felt it posed too much of a risk to the community and would be hard to comply under government regulations if there was a change in circumstance.

‘‘We wanted to make this decision early to allow our community, exhibitors, volunteer groups and local businesses who are a huge part of our event to be able to...