Tauranga Mayor winds down the year with free barbecue for city

Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless is keen to keep his annual barbecue at the city's waterfront going each New Year's Eve. Photo/Andrew Warner

New Year's Eve is a time of tradition for many cities including Tauranga, where the Mayor's waterfront barbecue is becoming a regular thing.

Mayor Greg Brownless has been hosting an annual barbecue at the city's waterfront on The Strand every New Year's Eve since 2015.

It was a positive community event he hoped would continue for some time, Brownless said.

"It just seems to be a great atmosphere and something simple that doesn't require a huge amount of organisation."

Brownless said the barbecue, backed by the Tauranga Youth Development Trust, was an excellent way to end the year.

People arrive early to get a good viewing spot for the 9.30pm fireworks display at the waterfront on The Strand. Photo / Andrew Warner.

With 1000 sausages at the ready, Brownless hoped families unable to stay late for New Year festivities could at least enjoy a decent sausage sizzle at no cost.

The event was another way of Tauranga moving on from the big beach party at Mount Maunganui, which had been the scene of riots and arrests in the past, to something more wholesome, he said.

"In the past couple of years, there hasn't been any trouble."

Brownless planned to visit the council staff working late last night after finishing the barbecue but said he wasn't sure if he would make it until the midnight countdown.

Crowds are massing at the three city-sanctioned family-friendly New Year's Eve events on The Strand, at Pāpāmoa's Gordon Spratt Reserve and, for the first time, in Matua's Fergusson Park.

Kingsley Grammer-Mayes, 8, meets the Joker and Batman on Tauranga's waterfront New Year's Eve celebration. Photo / Andrew Warner.