Dates Announced for the 2016 American Express Queenstown Winter Festival

Queenstown’s 2015 winter season is still in full swing but the American Express Queenstown Winter Festival is already looking forward to 2016. The Festival will take centre stage in Queenstown from Friday 24 June to Sunday 3 July 2016.

The 2016 Festival will announce the beginning of the winter season in Queenstown and celebrate the town’s unique culture and identity creating New Zealand’s 10 coolest days.

Organisers are thrilled with the outcomes of the successful 2015 Festival and are excited to be in planning for 2016.

American Express Queenstown Winter Festival Manager Lisa Buckingham says the high levels of satisfaction amongst attendees and the extremely strong media results from this year’s Festival are very pleasing.

“We work very hard to ensure that the Queenstown Winter Festival is an event that locals and visitors alike can enjoy.  We also strive to create a festival that grabs the attention of the media – it would seem we have succeeded on both fronts,” says Lisa.

A consumer survey of almost 500 respondents indicated that 4 out of 5 attendees rated their Queenstown Winter Festival experience as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’.  Of those who had travelled from outside of the Queenstown region, 2 out of 5 people booked the trip specifically to attend the festival. Of this group 82% rated Queenstown Winter Festival as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’ confirming that the event helps boost tourism numbers at a time when town has capacity available.


2015 American Express Queenstown Winter Festival opening party and fireworks. Photo and caption courtesy of QueenstownNZ.

A key objective of the Queenstown Winter Festival is to generate wide spread media attention and the 2015 event surpassed any other year to date in the breadth of coverage.  International, national, regional and local outlets all covered aspects of the event in print, broadcast and online channels. The Festival received close to $2.5 million in equivalent advertising value.

Destination Queenstown owns the multi award-winning festival and CEO Graham Budd says he is looking forward to another fantastic festival in 2016.

“The Queenstown Winter Festival is our way of declaring Queenstown open for the winter season and celebrating it with 10 days of fun and entertainment. The Festival is a big draw card for our visitors because they get a chance to enjoy the festivities, experience Kiwi culture at its best and mingle with the locals as part of their winter holiday in New Zealand’s premier visitor destination,” says Graham.

With dates in place for the 2016 event the focus will now be on working with sponsors and stakeholders to create another inspirational Winter Festival that everyone can look forward to.

To stay up to date with the latest news for Winter Festival visit www.winterfestival.co.nz.  For more Queenstown information visit www.queenstownNZ.co.nz.