Raggamuffin's future in city uncertain

Rotorua district councillors will discuss the contract it holds with Raggamuffin promoters and whether it will return next year. Photo/File

Rotorua district councillors will today discuss the future of the Raggamuffin music festival and whether it will return to the city next year.

The concert's promoters are to decide whether they will bring the annual concert back to Rotorua, after a poor turnout to this year's festival.

About 19,000 people turned out to the two-day festival held at the Rotorua International Stadium at the beginning of February, with crowd numbers down 30 per cent from last year.

Rotorua was expected to host the event again next year as the council has one year remaining on its contract with the festival's promoters. However, because of the low crowd numbers, that contract could be in doubt.

Councillors will discuss this contract today as part of a confidential session of the council's Operations and Monitoring Committee.

The festival director of this year's Raggamuffin, Jackie Sanders, said she could not comment on the future of the festival as she was no longer in the role or employed by the promoter.

Ms Sanders had previously said the festival could be moved to Auckland because it was more economically viable.

It is unknown whether a new festival director has been appointed.

Rotorua District Council's events and venues general manager Peter McLeod said he could not comment until after today's meeting.

Raggamuffin has been held in Rotorua since 2008, bringing some of the world's biggest reggae acts, including Damian and Ziggy Marley, UB40 and Shaggy, to the city as well as attracting thousands of people and injecting more than $15 million into the local economy.

Some local Raggamuffin fans have taken to social media to keep the annual music festival here, with one page, called "Keep ragga muffin in rotorua", getting close to 3000 likes and hundreds of comments.