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A Hastings festival that brought eateries and the community together over a shared love of meatballs has been named a winner in the New Zealand Event Awards.
New Zealand’s event professionals gathered on Tuesday evening at the NZEA New Zealand Event Awards 2025, where the industry’s creativity, innovation and impactwere celebrated at its gala dinner at Claudelands Events Centre in Hamilton.
There were 30 different meatball creations from 22 “meatballers” to choose from, with 15,000 meatballs selling in just three hours.
An estimated 4500 to 5000 people headed to Hastings CBD for the Hastings Meatball Festival.
Top chefs Peter Gordon and Ben Bayly joined in on the competition fun, with Gordon’s and EIT’s meatball proving to be a winning combination, taking out the People’s Choice Award.
Gordon’s winning meatball was a First Light wagyu meatball, labneh, pickled red onions, kawakawa salsa verde, crispy shallots and curry leaves.
Competition was tight, with Black Betty BBQ coming a close second, and Shaneo’s Bakehouse, Gina’s Food Truck and Cellar 495 tying for third.
Peter Gordon and EIT were the Hastings Meatball Festival People’s Choice Award winners.
It was announced in August that the festival was in the running to be named the country’s best event of the year.
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said: “The success of the inaugural event showed it helps drives tourism by attracting visitors from outside the district, and it’s building on Heretaunga Hastings’ reputation as a great place to visit, as well as highlighting to other national event managers its potential as a destination for other events.”
“The revitalisation of our city centre to attract business and support the local economy has been a top priority for our council, and events like this, which brought about 5000 people from near and far into the city, help us achieve that,” Hazlehurst said.
The second festival is in the planning, with the date to be announced in the coming weeks.
