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Two of Auckland’s biggest cultural festivals have secured a big single sponsor for 3-5 years in a move which the council’s events agency hopes will allow them to grow significantly.
The bank BNZ has become the naming sponsor for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, and the Lantern Festival for an undisclosed sum, for three years and with the right to renew for two more.
Tātaki Auckland Unlimited (TAU) said the sponsorship will supplement a continuing unchanged investment by the council, and the deal will help it “raise the bar” on the scale of locally owned events.
The deal is the first in which the council-run events has attracted a naming-rights sponsor, and TAU is negotiating deals for others, such as its new Ocean Festival in March 2024.
“It’s a really good sign for an event organisation, that a multinational wants to invest,” said Chris Simpson, the head of events at TAU.
Simpson said the costs of running major events had risen sharply, with some aspects up 20-30% in a year, and coming on top of unchanged ratepayer funding, the sponsorship will allow growth and development.
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
The crowd-pulling global Sail GP series moves its New Zealand round from Lyttelton to Auckland in 2024
The Chinese cultural event the Lantern Festival has attracted up to 170,000 visitors but last ran in 2019 due to Covid-19, and this year, was cancelled because of major rain events.
Diwali will take place in November, and has drawn up to 60,000. It’s returning after a two-year break due to Covid-19 restrictions.
While no details are given on the value of the BNZ deal, the ratepayer investment in the last Lantern Festival was $234,000, and in the 2022 Diwali $346,294, reflecting lower sponsorship after a two-year absence, and the cost of staging it in Queen Street.
The BNZ deal is part of a strategy by TAU to build the scale and pulling power of Auckland’s regular festivals, especially with the pipeline of international scale events, all but empty in foreseeable years.
The city’s major events funding was axed in 2020, and it is no longer able to pursue events such as the just-held FIFA womens’ football world cup, which take years to secure.
“If anything we’d like to be more like Australia, growing annual events to an almost international level,” said Simpson.
The Ocean Festival in 2024 is a concept where existing and new marine related events such as the Boat Show, and next year the Sail GP series, are bundled into a branded event, with components that can change year by year.
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