Over 5000 people attended the sold-out Waikato Cherry Tree Festival this weekend and many more were turned away, forcing the festival to open again next Saturday.
The event, organised by NZ Pure Tour, was held under a beautiful pink blossom canopy at English Cherry Tree Manor in Tamahere.
The trees were planted 10 years ago, but the event was just about a stroll down a driveway.
Paul Oulton, NZ Pure Tour co-founder and festival organiser, has also created an English garden, which has taken him over 22 years, and there was plenty of entertainment.
Paul said the cherry tree canopy had been an accident, as they used to have a drive of Paulownia trees, but they were very brittle and when there was a storm he’d have to get the chainsaw out just to get down the drive.
So, he decided to change to cherry trees. But rather than fell all the trees at once, he planted the cherry trees in between to let them grow up a bit. That had the advantage of making them grow very tall and straight because they were reaching for the light.
“Each year more and more people have come to see them, but they would flee when they saw us and I thought we should just open it up to the public so they could enjoy it too,” he said during the opening ceremony.
Anne Cao, co-founder and co-organiser of NZ Pure Tours and the festival, welcomed everybody to the festival and said she was really honoured by the number of guests, who included Hamilton mayor Andrew King, Labour MP Jamie Strange, Hamilton and Waikato Tourism CEO Jason Dawson, and Consul-General of Japan in Auckland Minoru Kikuchi.
The Fairfield kapa haka group kicked off the entertainment at the opening ceremony on Saturday morning with a gripping performance.
They were followed by an array of acts as well as entertainment throughout the grounds including stilt walkers, human statues, face painting, evening lights, fire twirlers, Japanese drummers, a red dragon, gentle Chinese lute music contrasting with fierce kung fu dance performances among the beautiful display of seasonal flowers.
The festival was set to run from 8am till 8pm for three days from Friday 21 to Sunday 23, September; one more day than last year. But now they have added Saturday 29 September to accommodate the masses they had to turn away over the weekend, including people who had travelled from Auckland.
This year’s tally of 5000 people smashed last year’s crowd of 2000, with people coming from all over the North Island.