Tauranga Moana Seafood Festival to start early

The Tauranga Moana Seafood Festival is to get a new family focus thanks to Dive Crescent becoming a lot quieter since the opening of the second harbour bridge.
Organiser Caryn Rawlinson has bounced back from last year's disappointments with a new determination and fresh vision for her beloved festival.
Instead of the festival starting at 5.30pm, she has persuaded the council to close Dive Crescent earlier so the gates can open at the more family friendly time of midday.
It means the November 27 festival will finish at 8pm instead of 10.30pm, giving organisers a huge opportunity to pitch the event at families without sacrificing the theme of high quality fresh seafood, good music and fine wines.
"It is like a whole new festival," Ms Rawlinson says.
Ms Rawlinson has moved to offset at least some of the risk posed by rain, which last year kept the crowds away.
This time there will be crowd cover in front of the main stage on the Dive Crescent carpark.
The scope of the festival has been broadened, with a new layout that puts the focus on food and entertainment, leaving beer and wine sales at the furthest Sebel Trinity Wharf end of the site.
Ticket prices have been reduced to $15 for adults and $7.50 for children or a family pass for $40 - making it an affordable day out.
Special attractions for the family segment of the day include a bouncy castle, a treasure hunt, a sandcastle competition and a talent quest.
Other new features for the festival will be a zany seafood eating contest hosted by Classic Hits' Grayson Ottaway, cooking demonstrations by chef Peter Blakeway and mussel opening and fish filleting contests.
Ms Rawlinson envisaged that as the afternoon drifted into the evening, the children would go home and a different ambience would settle over the festival where people relaxed with good wines, great seafood and musicians on four stages.
Each food stall will offer something different, with delicacies to include crayfish and fritters of freshly caught West Coast whitebait.
Kapa haka and other cultural displays will be staged by Tauranga Moana Maori Tourism in the Cargo Shed.
The new-look festival has been made possible because the council agreed to close Dive Crescent at 7am.
The harbourfront road now carried a lot less traffic than the days before Harbour Link opened.
The festival is dropping the complementary wine glass with each ticket, leaving people to purchase their own commemorative glass for $2.
Tickets can be purchased at Ticket Direct, Baycourt, or online at www.ticketdirect.co.nz