Artist Erika Pearce delivered a dose of female power to the BOON Street Art Festival last year - this year's street art festival has been postponed until next weekend. Photo / Supplied
Artist Erika Pearce delivered a dose of female power to the BOON Street Art Festival last year - this year's street art festival has been postponed until next weekend. Photo / Supplied
It was meant to be an exciting week for communities around the Waikato with lots of fun events planned, now most of the events are postponed due to the latest Covid-19 developments.
The alert level change on Saturday evening saw Hamilton City Council's Love Your BikeDay planned for Sunday at Claudelands Park, cancelled.
Hamilton East MP Jamie Strange's Grow Waikato Technology public event scheduled for Tuesday, March 2, has been postponed until March 30.
The first Grrrl Fest planned for Hamilton since November for March 5 to 7 has been called off for now. The women-led multimedia festival had planned to celebrate four main aspects of Hamilton's local creative arts communities: music, visual arts, market makers and performing arts.
The organisers "made the tough decision to postpone. We will be waiting for more news over the coming week, and will be making a decision on new festival dates when we know more. We are looking forward to starting fresh once it is safe to do so," the organisers said on their Facebook page on Sunday.
GRRRL FEST organisers (from left) Kat Waswo, Gwyn Barrie and Lisa Clausen have decided to postpone the event after the changes in alert levels. Photo / Supplied
The Boon Street Art Festival, planned for the same weekend as Grrrl Fest, has been postponed until next weekend, March 12 to 14, apart from a gallery exhibition at Never Projects Space.
The organisers say: "Several of our team, artists and musicians all set to get the action cracking this week are in level 3 lockdown in Auckland. We were able to stop what was in motion early enough so we can still go ahead with the festival with new the dates."
The annual Red Cross Hamilton Book Fair, also planned from March 5 until 7, at the Te Rapa Race Course, has been cancelled due to the change in alert levels, an email from the organisers says.
Moksha Base is looking at postponing their multicultural concert Beyond Boundaries planned for March 6.
Singer, choreographer and rapper of Moksha Base, Siva Kumar, says: "Due to the level 2 situation in Hamilton and level 3 in Auckland, we will speak with the venue to check for alternative dates for our concert, and move forward from there."
It looks darker for the NZ Superbike Championship MotoFest at Hampton Downs. Hampton Downs Motorsport Park & Events Centre commercial manager Mike Marsden says the MotoFest will not go ahead this weekend.
"We are looking at a postponement but more likely we will have to cancel as we do not have any suitable dates."
So far, the Balloons over Waikato Festival is still going ahead March 16 to 20. Event media and PR manager Jenni Muhlmann-Brown says: "We are continuing our plans for Balloons over Waikato and have all fingers and toes crossed for a positive decision in the move down the alert level scale on Sunday."
The Gallagher Chiefs take on the Highlanders on Friday night in the Sky Super Rugby Aotearoa 2021 round two clash, under level 2 restrictions – without a home crowd.
The match will be available to watch on Sky Sport with kick-off at 7.05pm.
The Gallagher Chiefs had a bye for round 1 while the Highlanders took on the Crusaders in the Southern derby, losing 26-13.
