Cricket on Wednesday would be played to an empty Sky Stadium. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Cricket on Wednesday would be played to an empty Sky Stadium. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Postponed festivals, a cancelled air show and cricket played behind closed doors: this is how level 2 will affect this week's events in Wellington.
A number of events around the capital have been affected by the region's move to alert level 2 for seven days from 6am on Sunday.
Followingthe discovery of a community case unlinked to the current cluster, on Saturday the Government announced Auckland would re-enter level 3 lockdown and the rest of the country would return to alert level 2 – limiting gatherings to 100 people.
The Wings over Wairarapa aviation festival in Masterton was grounded for its final day, following a "record-breaking" crowd on Saturday.
Wings over Wairarapa general manager Jenny Gasson said the decision to call off Sunday's event had not been a hard one.
"We would have loved to put on another day of the air festival but you've got to put safety and health of your staff ... that's got to be the priority," she said.
"We'd rather leave people with an amazing event yesterday and the day before and look forward to 2023."
"We've just got to take away the fact that we had two really amazing days."
The 61st Golden Shears, which were scheduled to be held in Masterton this week, has also been cancelled.
Masterton mayor Lyn Patterson said it was disappointing but the region accepted that alert levels could change very quickly.
Wednesday's T20 cricket at Sky Stadium would be played to an empty stadium.
Sadly the @WHITE_FERNS & @BLACKCAPS double-header on Wednesday @SkyStadium will have no crowds. Really feel for those who have been impacted. NZ Cricket will be in touch re refunds.
The DH, scheduled for Eden Park on Friday, will now be played @SkyStadium behind closed doors.
Sky Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon said the double header, with Blackcaps against Australia, and the White Ferns taking on England, was shaping up to be a big event.
"We were expecting a crowd of 20,000, which is one of the biggest crowds we've had in a number of years," he said.
"It was a potential decider as well, with the Black Caps up 2-0 and the White Ferns back in Wellington for a double header."
"It was shaping up as a really popular event and a lot of those tickets had sold outside the Wellington region, so it is disappointing."
He said the stadium was planning for the possibility of a stop-start calendar throughout the year.
Wellington's Sky Stadium had also picked up the next two T20 double header events scheduled for Friday and Sunday - originally to be held in Auckland and Mount Maunganui.
New Zealand Cricket advised that all three would be played behind closed doors.
Around 30,000 had attended the super rugby on Saturday night just before the lockdown was announced.
Well we've made the difficult decision to not run the Newtown Festival on Sunday 7 March.
We’ve talked to a lot of people this morning - from our MPs, the MoH to our key festival organisers and we feel this is the best decision for all involved, despite being very disappointing
Meanwhile, the Newtown festival scheduled for Sunday had been cancelled, despite kicking off just hours after the level 2 restrictions could be lifted.
An update on the event's website said they were "really gutted", but the decision to cancel the event was the best option to keep the community safe.
They were looking to April 11 as a tentative postponement date.
Kia ora friends of the Fringe 💗 we're posting late tonight, but we have a feeling you're all up too... first things first, the Festival is still going ahead, but with some Level 2 changes to keep you and everyone else safe, read more below. pic.twitter.com/iQ9n8Adbdl
The Wellington Fringe Festival would be continuing under level 2 restrictions.
Event organisers advised that all events would be kept under 100 people, and there would be social distancing measures in place, as well as masks and hand sanitiser provided.
