Taupo is waking up and smelling the coffee's gone.
The national coffee festival held in the town the past two years has been lost to Auckland.
But Destination Lake Taupo says it is unconcerned and is looking ahead to other opportunities.
Events marketing manager Warwick Hall saidlosing the festival was "just one of those small town things".
He was philosophical about the loss, saying the final decision came down to numbers and the festival had to move for commercial reasons.
"I suspect Auckland has more coffee drinkers," he said.
The festival attracted more than 50 stands featuring coffee related-businesses and was also host to the finals of the National Barista Awards and New Zealand Coffee Awards.
Festival Director Michael Guy said moving the event to Auckland provided the opportunity for a much bigger, better event "in the heart of the cafe capital of New Zealand".
Mr Hall said losing the coffee festival meant Taupo could look at hosting other interesting events instead.
The coffee festival is the second event Taupo has lost in the past couple of years with the Jambalaya Festival moving to Rotorua from last year. Despite that, Mr Hall said there was no trend.
"I let Jambalaya go," he said. Organisers of that event had wanted more sponsorship money than Destination Lake Taupo was willing to give.
Mr Hall said he had already signed two new events for next year. Taupo will be holding the National Dog Show, expected to bring 2000 people to the town, for the next five years.
He would not say what the other event was, as it was still in the pipeline.
