Taste of Auckland tops 20,000 visitors

Rogue Society brand ambassador James McDonald mixes a drink at Taste of Auckland.

More than 20,000 people from across New Zealand flocked to Western Springs last week to experience the seventh year of Taste of Auckland.

This year's festival, co-sponsored by Viva, featured 114 high-end exhibitors from olive oil and honey producers to wineries, craft beer brewers and some of Auckland's top restaurants. Festival director Rob Eliott said it would be easy to grow the festival to 500 or so stalls, but the event was focused more on the premium food and beverage category.

"We haven't concentrated on growing the event exponentially. There are other mass market food events and exhibitions out there and Taste just isn't one of those," he said. "We focus on the premium food and drink space and creating a wonderful experience for [our visitors], so while the event has doubled in size since it's inception, really it evolves rather than grows."

Over the four days more than 50,000 dishes were served up, as well as entertainment from 12 bands and 30 demonstrations including from world pizza champion Johnny Di Francesco alongside Sergio Maglione of Farina in Auckland. Eliott said he didn't have an exact gage on the economic benefit for Auckland from the event but said the money spent by the 20,000 odd visitors was "substantial".

"Awareness around the event is also growing as it becomes more established and it's helping to put auckland on a culinary map," Eliott said. "It's also a positive brand profile for exhibitors and some of them like Nautilus wine have been with us every year since Taste started."

Rogue Society gin managing director Daniel Mclaughlin said the company had made more sales by Saturday than they had expected to make by the end of the weekend, with "substantially more people through our bar than we budgeted on," he said.

One of the highlights of the festival this year was a series of hāngi, with chefs asked to create a modern take on the traditional Maori cooking method. Eliott said the event was all about innovation and providing opportunities for creativity.

"They might not get the opportunity every day [to have a hāngi] but a festival like this gives people the chance to do different things," Eliott said. "That's what we see as the role of Taste and why it has longevity."