Queenstown Comes to REAL New Zealand Festival Party

Local rugby fans and viewers and got their first taste of RWC 2011 and the REAL New Zealand Festival in Queenstown this morning (Wednesday 6 July).

The Rugby World Cup 2011 Roadshow, hosted by TV1 Breakfast host Tamati Coffey, rolled into Queenstown to be welcomed by locals who lined up at the Queenstown Events Centre to have their photo taken with the Webb Ellis Cup and enter competitions to win RWC 2011 tickets and other prizes.

Destination Queenstown also officially launched further details of the region’s four major REAL New Zealand Festival events scheduled between 1 September and 23 October, and called on local businesses and individuals to submit their own events.

Designed to celebrate all things Kiwi during RWC 2011, Queenstown’s current festival events include 'Matches Made in Heaven', celebrating the district's unique and world-class food, wine, arts and culture, ‘Taste Queenstown, a mini food, wine and art festival, the Queenstown Jazz Festival and a titanic Classic All Blacks match against the French Classics.

Further details, including how to submit events, can be found on the Matches Made in Heaven website (www.matchesmadeinheaven.co.nz) which was also launched today.

Destination Queenstown’s General Manager of Marketing Graham Budd encouraged locals to get into the spirit of RWC 2011 by putting their thinking caps on, coming up with a “match” that showcased the Queenstown region and their businesses to the best advantage, and then submitting it online.

“We’ve got a fantastic range of talent in our region and we want to share that with our visitors,” he said. “Events can be anything from food and wine matches to an art exhibition with wine and cheese tasting or local musicians performing at a brunch.”

For more information about Queenstown’s REAL New Zealand Festival events visit www.matchesmadeinheaven.co.nz. For more information about Queenstown check out www.queenstownnz.co.nz.