Organisers of failed Waikato Cherry Tree Festival say sorry as punters left out of pocket

The Waikato Cherry Tree Festival, held at the English Cherry Tree Manor in Tamahere, has been cancelled and the company that runs it has been put into liquidation. Photo / File

The organisers of the failed Waikato Cherry Tree Festival say they will do everything they can to hold the Waikato-based festival next year and will allow this year's ticket holders in for free.

NZ Pure Tour, the company behind the Waikato Cherry Tree Festival, went into liquidation on Friday - the same day the multicultural festival in Tamahere was supposed to start.

Imran Kamal at Liquidation Management has been appointed as the liquidator. The first report is due to be released on Friday.

The 10-day event was cancelled on Thursday after it failed to get resource consent from Waikato District Council in time.

NZ Pure Tour founder Paul Oulton, who runs the event with his partner Dong (Anne) Cao said it was heartbreaking to have to cancel the event when people had travelled from Tahiti, Australia and Auckland to attend.

Oulton claimed the liquidator would be in touch with all the ticket holders.

"We put a huge amount of time and money into this multicultural community festival, which is loved by all, of great economic benefit to the area with most visitors coming from outside the Waikato, and of large potential to attract international visitors. We have been creating this beautiful place for 23 years and love sharing it with others," Oulton said.

He promised to try and make it up to attendees.

"Anne and I have learnt much from this experience, and if we can rebuild from this and if we can get resource consent to run the festival again, we will honour all those who lost out this year with the same for free.

"We are really committed to fixing the pain this cancellation has caused."

It is understood 3000 tickets had been sold before the company collapsed.

People took to social media to express their outrage at the event being cancelled and being left out of pocket.

A family day ticket for the weekend was $52 and an adult ticket was $30.

One would-be-attendee said he had spent more than $300 on tickets and food for his family of seven to attend the event and had also booked a hotel for the weekend.

Another ticket holder was annoyed the organisers were still selling tickets even the day after their resource consent was declined.

It was to be the third year the event, which sold out in previous years, was to be held. The event promised to be "arguably the most beautiful and happy event in the world" with exceptional cherry blooms as well as a range of entertainment including pony rides, face painting, stilt walkers and a range of food options.