Blossom festival to stick with traditional date

The decision to retain the date was made at a committee meeting last Monday. Photo / Michael Craig

The Alexandra Blossom Festival will be held on its traditional date - the fourth weekend in September.

The blossom festival committee was considering changing the date after the general election was announced for the same day, September 23.

Event manager Martin McPherson said it had ''caused a bit of stress'' because changing it to the next weekend was also problematic because of school holidays.

There had been a lot of feedback from accommodation providers and on social media that many visitors to the festival booked a year out to coincide with visits to relatives and so changing the date would be an issue for them.

New festival chairwoman Sharleen Stirling-Lindsay said the decision to retain the date was made at a committee meeting last Monday.

''The committee have all worked really well on this issue. It's been a team effort, and the huge amount of feedback has shown us the festival is really a community-owned event.''