Dave Mollard's Change is Constant: We should all be proud of Superstock Teams Champs

Palmerston North could host Rhythm and Vines and rename it Rhythm and Vanes - or maybe not. Photo / NZME

OPINION:

Two years ago, my wife and I rode our motorbike around the East Coast during the Christmas holidays. This beautiful part of Aotearoa stole our hearts as we connected with its stunning vistas and beautiful people. Unfortunately, we got our timing wrong and hit Gisborne on the first day of the Rhythm and Vines Festival.

The quiet little backwater of Tairāwhiti was clogged with small cars borrowed from mum, packed with teenagers with event bands on their wrists dangling out the windows. Supermarkets were clogged and service station toilets closed. After a couple of hours of this madness, I opened up the throttle on the Honda as we left the crowd behind in our wing mirrors and headed north.

Last month, mana whenua from the Gisborne area put a rahui over the festival that usually attracts more than 20,000 young people. While they do not have the authority to stop the festival, local iwi do have the mandate under our treaty to protect their people.

It got me thinking, perhaps we as a city should host the festival instead. We could fence off Ongley Park, put up a stage and turn it into a tent city. We could call it Rhythm and Vanes (referencing the vanes on the wind turbines that dominate our eastern horizon). Suddenly Palmy changes from a ghost town at New Year's into the place to watch 2022 arrive.

It would be great for our economy - fast food, liquor stores and supermarkets would double their profits. The portaloo industry would have a licence to print money, as would security guard contractors! Police, ambulance and emergency department staff would get extra shifts! Sure our sewage system, recycling and landfill would overflow with the mess 20,000 exhausted party goers would leave behind, but we would get that cleaned up before the 2023 festival starts!

Actually, when you add it all up, even without the pandemic, a youth music festival could stretch a city with our resources to breaking point, let alone a smaller place like Gizzy.

My colleague in the office whakapapas to the East Coast and has lived through several R&V festivals. Her point was that for many locals, the festival is a major inconvenience, queues at the supermarket, infrastructure overwhelmed and the leftover rubbish taking weeks to deal with. And the money these festivalgoers spend often flows out of the region through national and multinational budget chains rather than supporting local enterprise.

No, what we need is a national event that attracts bigger spenders to our city. Visitors who stay in motels, eat in cafes and buy from local shops. Visitors who are passionate but don't end up at ED at 3am. The event needs to celebrate what is unique about our city and what we do well.

Come to think of it, we already have this and, while it does not always get the headlines across the nation it deserves, the Superstock Teams Champs is something we should be proud of. More about speedway in my next piece.

Change is the only constant.

• Dave Mollard is a Palmerston North community worker and social commentator.