Will Rotorua miss Raggamuffin?

Raggamuffin has injected between $3.5 million and $9.3 million into the Rotorua economy each year. Photo / Andrew Warner

Raggamuffin fans say they are "gutted" the festival is moving to Auckland, but some Rotorua business owners are happy to see it go.

Yesterday promoter Andrew McManus announced Rotorua will no longer host the annual reggae musical festival, citing a poor turnout to the event in February and a lack of support from locals.

He said the festival would instead be held in Auckland, as about 70 per cent of concert-goers were from the city, but he could not confirm whether it would be held there next year.

The Rotorua District Council is currently considering releasing Mr McManus' business, McManus Entertainment, from the 2015 festival - the final year of a five-year contract to stage the festival in Rotorua.

Local Raggamuffin fan Anthony Haines said Mr McManus should honour his contract and give Rotorua the opportunity to host the festival for one more year.

"I think he owes us a Raggamuffin. He should honour his contract and give the city one more festival, and make it a really good one, so it can go out on high note," he said.

Mr Haines has been going to the event since 2009, the year after it began, but said "there's no way" he would go to it in Auckland.

"I'm pretty gutted about it. Rotorua is the home of Raggamuffin. This is where it belongs, it's so central and means people from Gisborne, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay and Wellington don't have to travel too far to go. Auckland's just too far away and too expensive."

Earlier this year Mr Haines made a Facebook page called "Keep ragga muffin in rotorua", which he hoped might convince Mr McManus to keep it in the city.

"All the feedback [on the page] is that we should keep it here. It's ours - holding it here has so many benefits. I don't think it will make a difference but it's worth a shot."

Raggamuffin has injected between $3.5 million and $9.3 million into the Rotorua economy each year and losing it to Auckland is expected to have an impact on local businesses.

However, some business owners said it was likely to have little impact. Rotorua Central Backpackers owner Neil Macdonald said since the backpackers was generally full from November to May, not having visitors from the festival made little difference.

Rock Solid Backpackers co-owner Vanessa Miller said the move was a positive thing for their business, as visitors the concert had attracted this year proved problematic. "The truth is that it will have a positive influence. That weekend we had nothing but trouble, people throwing up, the noise was terrible, things were stolen and our property was damaged," she said. "We were really let down."

Mrs Miller said the change would free up space for international visitors. Opinions were divided on Facebook, with some saying the move would be a sad thing for the local economy, and others saying they should "let it go because it's the same groups all the time".