Nelson at risk of losing events

Rising costs at council venues in Nelson have raised questions about the viability of events in the city.

Evolve Festival, the country’s longest-running wellness festival, is traditionally held at Founders Heritage Park over a weekend but, was scaled back to just one day, and shifted to Kinzett Terrace this January.

Director Bex Deva said the cost of hiring Founders increased by $10,000 over the last two years to reach a “ridiculous” $15,000.

Ticket prices would have had to rise drastically to cover the cost which wasn’t feasible in the current financial environment, Bex said.

“It’s … quite sad, because the event has used Founders for so long, and it is such a great venue.”

The future of the festival is unknown at this stage because of changing personal plans, but Bex doesn’t believe Evolve can return to Founders Park at the current rate.

“It's unrealistic to expect that much money for the kind of event that it is.”

A representative of the craft beer festival Marchfest and Ciderfest echoed similar concerns.

Both festivals also take place at Founders Heritage Park, but the representative said the cost of running Marchfest had increased by about 25 per cent between 2023 and 2024 after several years of little change.

The events remained at Founders in 2024, and will do for 2025 as well, but the rising costs prompted looks at other venues.

“Founders is an amazing venue to hold a festival … but the increase in costs has put a real strain on our budget,” said the representative, who asked not to be named.

“It just makes everything difficult, because not only is the venue hire increasing, all supplier costs across the board and are increasing, but we can't increase the ticket price to match that.”

Another increase of that scale would jeopardise the viability of holding the festivals at Founders, but the lack of other alternatives was also a challenge, they said.

“The only other option is the Trafalgar Centre, and you’re kind of up against a rock and hard place, because they're both expensive.”

Rising costs at the Trafalgar Centre, another council venue, are also proving challenging for one of the city’s largest fundraising events.

In 2023, the NBS Dancing for a Cause charity event raised $440,000 for the Nelson Tasman Hospice and the biennial event is hoping for another resounding success this year.

But the event’s costs for 2025 have “basically doubled” said trustee Michelle Byczkow, largely driven by a new corkage fee, which the event hasn’t had to pay in the past, of about $9,200.

She said that due to a “tightening up” of liquor licencing requirements, centre operator and council contractor CLM (Community Leisure Management) insisted it runs the bar and required that its own paid staff wait tables rather than qualified volunteers.

“The change effectively limits our ability to raise funds for Hospice by limiting our fundraising income, and increasing our costs at the same time,” Michelle said.

“This makes CLM the financial winner, rather than Hospice, which is sad for all involved”.

She was “grateful” that CLM, a sponsor of the event, had given its usual $5,000 discount for the event.

However, she said that was almost negated by the contractor “clipping the ticket” and preparing to make a larger profit during the 2025 event as a result of the corkage and staff changes.

Michelle added that she understood the need to deliver financial returns to ratepayers.

“But at the end of the day, if they’re going to continue to increase prices so drastically … events like ours are just not going to be feasible anymore, which will be a great blow to the Hospice which heavily relies on this event.”

Similarly, a coordinator of corporate events, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that the cost of council venues “cuts out a lot of clients”, especially those with several hundred attendees where the Trafalgar Centre was the only option.

“As soon as they see how much the cost is, then they'll take it somewhere else.”

Nelson City Council’s group manager community services Andrew White said that the council valued the role events play in fostering a vibrant community and supporting the local economy.

“We understand that rising costs can be a challenge for event organisers, and we are committed to balancing the affordability of venue hire with the need to maintain high-quality facilities.”

He said that the council’s venue hire fees typically increase in line with inflation, but were reviewed at the start of new management contracts when they were assessed against other comparable venues.

“Council provides a range of support to event organisers including dedicated staff roles, which provide support and advice on events both large and small.”

The council also provided the Nelson Regional Development Agency with financial assistance to grow events in the region, and a “wide range” of event funding.

Andrew added that “significant” improvements were made to council-owned venues last year, such as restoring the Granary floor at Founders Heritage Park while the Trafalgar Centre received public address and lighting upgrades to secure high-level sporting events.

Despite the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Andrew also noted that the number of events at Founders had increased, “indicating that the park remains a sought-after venue”.

Specifically, the Evolve Festival was initially charged $13,600 for Founders but that was brought down to $9,650 after the council waived the pack-in/pack-out fee.

The festival’s previous booking was made under a smaller event category which didn’t reflect the true scale of the event, Andrew said.

He also confirmed that Marchfest’s costs had increased by $1,000 for the 2024 event which was related to additional required services like an acoustic consultant due to noise issues at the 2023 event.

The council shared the cost of the consultant with the event organisers.

CLM’s venues manager for Nelson community venues Mark Mekalick said that the cost difference for Dancing for a Cause was because the event was being held over two nights rather than one like in the past.

“On the days where there is not a show, Dancing for a Cause has a 50 percent discount on the full community rate. Show days have many more costs involved when compared to packing in and out, including cleaning, security, and more staff being required.”

However, Michelle disputed that, saying the event already hired the Trafalgar Centre for eight days so an extra show day wouldn’t add significant extra costs.

Mark added that volunteers couldn’t be used in alcohol serving roles and without corkage, which was “very common” in the industry, the cost of the event would be around $10,000 higher.

“While we do need to charge a rate that allows us to maintain and operate the Trafalgar Centre on behalf of Nelson ratepayers, we feel that we have done everything we can to help Dancing for a Cause go ahead.”