The annual Wellington On A Plate event will be extended from two weeks to a full month, starting from next year.
"Our hospitality members are rightly proud of what they produce 365 days of the year," said Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Milford. "The extremely popular Visa Wellington On A Plate successfully brings customers in during what would otherwise be a quieter period. The feedback we’ve received from our members and customers is overwhelmingly positive, so expanding the event makes sense.”
The event is a major part of the Wellington calendar and will run for 31 days in 2019, as opposed to the 17 days of previous years. Festival director Sarah Meikle said the extension was the result of customer feedback.
“Every year we think 'how could we do it better?' We have an industry consultation process and the feedback from people every year was: make the festival longer. But we had to figure out how to make it work.”
The event will be split in two parts, which will be marked with the Beervana Festival in the middle. Dine Wellington will run for the first 16 days, before Burger Wellington rounds out the final two weeks. Other events and Cocktail Wellington will take place over the entire 31-day period.
“We believe making this change will give all parts of the Festival the right amount of attention,” Miekle said. “It also means restaurants, bars and eateries can better manage demand and workloads.”
