Kids’ Carnival chaos

AMBITIOUS EVENT: The first Kids Christmas Street Carnival event organised by Heart of Gisborne was designed to be an affordable Christmas outing for families. Thousands attended, but due to the huge turnout and a shortage of volunteers, it brought out the worst in some participants. Pictures by Liam Clayton

GREED, theft, mess and terrible treatment of hard-working volunteers was a sad reality of the day, said Heart of Gisborne manager Lana Davy about the Kids’ Christmas Street Carnival held at Peel Street and in Treble Court yesterday.

Ms Davy said that while the annual Santa Parade was a success with about 10,000 people enjoying the high quality of floats, she acknowledged the Kids’ Carnival was too busy and volunteers were under considerable pressure to deliver the meals, treats and activities to the 3200 people who had purchased the $5 tickets used as currency.

“Sadly the Kids’ Carnival will not happen in this form again,” she said.

“To those few hundred of you who wrecked it for the others, bow your heads.”

Ms Davy said she was disappointed by the actions of some who stole everything from drinks to prizes.

She had planned on having the help of 120 volunteers but many did not show up, meaning those who did had to do more than their fair share of the work.

Heart of Gisborne relies on volunteers and community support.

“These events are impossible to run without support. So if you say you’ll help, please turn up.”

There were also plenty of positive comments about the event and the organisers from many of the thousands who attended.

The volunteers did incredibly well under the circumstances, Ms Davy said.

“Thank you all more than words can say for the mahi.”

Subsidised event for familiesTackling the clean-up today, Ms Davy said the idea of the carnival was to provide a subsidised event for families close to Christmas and to make it affordable for everyone.

But she was shocked by some of the behaviour she saw, including one parent telling her children to grab as much as they could from the Lucky Dip box.

It was ambitious to do two events on one day with only one other paid staff member to help with the organisation, she said.

“Next time the area would have to be fenced, allowing entry to cardholders only,” Ms Davy said.

As well as the hundreds who responded positively to the event, the main criticism was the location.

“Great event but I suggest another location for our safety,” said one Facebook respondent.

Ms Davy said she understood people wanting to see it being somewhere bigger and grassy.

“Unfortunately to utilise the road closure and save costs so that we could offer you this value-for-money, subsidised event, we had to use this area. Also we are limited to where we can have it as Heart of Gisborne can only use the city centre.”

Heart of Gisborne has also run two hugely successful events this year, First Light Kai Street Food Festival in January and the Street Food Fiesta in October.

The next event is Santa’s Grotto opening in Treble Court on December 13. This is a free event which includes a photo with Santa, bouncy castles, facepainting, story times, Christmas decorating activities and free gift wrapping with tokens from the retailers. It will run every day up until Christmas Eve.