There will be multiple stage performances at Wellington's Newtown Festival. Photo / Vanessa Rushton
There will be multiple stage performances at Wellington's Newtown Festival. Photo / Vanessa Rushton
One of Wellington's biggest and most diverse street festivals is set to welcome thousands on Sunday.
The Newtown Festival was scheduled to take place on March 7, but was postponed due to a return to level 2 restrictions following a Covid outbreak in Auckland.
Festival associate director Anna Kemble Welchsaid it had been hard work to postpone the event, but definitely worth it.
"It was a complete pivot, as they say, we hadn't anticipated being able to postpone.
"With it being a public street we have to do a road closure – there's a lot of official-ness with being able to put on such a big event that we always thought it wouldn't be feasible.
"But because of Covid people were bending over backwards to make it possible, and council were willing to do a new road closure date at short notice."
Kemble Welch said the event, which is a festival of entertainment, carnival rides, and hundreds of food stalls, was important to many people.
"We didn't want to let down all our stallholders, plus the creative people, music performers – there's a lot of people that depend on events like Newtown Festival for their livelihood as well as for entertainment."
The free festival, which has been running since 1997, was one of the last big events to go ahead before Covid lockdown in 2020.
All the stages originally planned for March 7 were now "back on track", she said. The new date also aligned with the Martinborough Fair on Saturday for people who travelled from out of town to attend both events.
The Newtown festival will run all day on April 10. Photo / File
Kemble Welch said one of the most exciting things was the cultural diversity of the Newtown Festival.
"We're a really mixed community in Newtown, really diverse and many of the people that live in the suburb actually have their own stall to showcase the food from their own culture.
"We find it really special having people in the community that want to do their own stalls."
A few showers were forecast for Sunday, but the event had alternative indoor stages and the festival would go ahead rain or shine.
"We've always been really lucky, but we're keeping our fingers crossed."
Located mostly down Newtown's Riddiford St, stage performances run from 9.45am to after 10pm. There would also be 450 stalls, a third of them food stalls.
