Waitangi weekend event tickets selling fast

FLOATING FUN: Flochella attracted thousands to Lake Taupo earlier this year. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Prepare for a Waitangi Weekend groundswell with tickets to Rotorua events selling like hotcakes.

Flochella, New Zealand's only floating music festival, goes ahead on Tikitapu (Blue Lake) on Monday, February 5. Presented by iHeartRadio and ZM, more than 3500 people have already confirmed their spot on the lake through ticket sales.

Although the Monday is not a public holiday - with Waitangi Day the following day - schools can begin Term One anytime between January 29 and February 7, so it may be some students will still be on holiday.

The stage line-up includes international artist Amy Shark as well as New Zealand artists such as Kings, Mitch James, Drax Project and special guest Jupiter Project.

Tickets can be bought at grabone.co.nz for $45.

The New Zealand Bomb Competition will be held on February 3 and 4 in the lead-up to Flochella and has created a storm of interest online with many locals keen to leap from the 10m scaffold platform that will be erected in the lake.

Also to be held during the same weekend is the Rotorua Summer Seafood Festival. Tickets went on sale Monday and it has already sold about tickets, according to event manager Larni Hepi.

Stan Walker is headlining the Te Arawa Fisheries event to be held on Saturday, February 3 at the Soundshell and Village Green.

"The response has been incredible. We've had one person buy 45 tickets and another purchase seven VIP tickets.

"We're still confirming local acts and special guests so to have sold so many tickets in such a short time is great."

Tickets for the Seafood Festival can be bought at eventfinda.

While Blue Lake Top 10 Holiday Park owner Sheryl Murray said people had started calling about accommodation the morning Blue Lake was announced as the Flochella 2018 venue, Rotorua Association of Motels chairman Martin Althuizen said bookings for Waitangi weekend, 2018, weren't any higher than he would expect at this stage.

"Although it is early days."