Jan
25
Mystery Creek puts finishing touches on NZ’s largest campsite Parachute 2012
January 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment
Mystery Creek Events Centre is busy preparing its 92-hectare campus to become one of the country’s largest, temporary campsites at Parachute 2012.
The Mystery Creek Events Centre events team is expecting the number of campers to top 18,000.
“Every year at Parachute, our team creates New Zealand’s largest temporary campground. We are preparing our grounds for about the same number of campers we had at last year’s event, which was just short of 20,000,” says Vanessa Richmond, Events Manager.
This is the ninth year the Parachute Music Festival is being held at Mystery Creek Events Centre, just south of Hamilton. The event kicks off on Friday, 27 January and runs through 30 January.
Ms Richmond said that preparing the Mystery Creek Events Centre grounds for the huge influx of campers involved adding to the centres unique infrastructure with additional toilet and shower facilities to meet the demand of visitors to the festival living on site for the weekend.
Last week Parachute Music announced a ‘pay what you can afford’ family pass, in an effort to boost ticket sales in light of ‘tough economic times.’ Chief Executive Officer, Jon Calder says Mystery Creek Events Centre has gone to great lengths this year to assist event organisers in making savings where possible.
“Mystery Creek Events Centre is owned and operated by the NZ National Fieldays Society, which is a not-for-profit organisation. The majority of our profits are invested back into our organisation, while some profits are used to support events held at our venue.
“Over the past 6 months, we have worked with the Parachute team to engineer costs out of the event, in addition to making a significant contribution to ensure the continued success of the festival.
The Society is focused on growing all events which is paramount to our continued success by ensuring sustainability and longevity of iconic events such as Parachute. This approach allows us to make these concessions more easily than other venues around New Zealand,” outlines Mr Calder.
Mr Calder confirmed that Mystery Creek Events Centre has a contract through to 2013 with Parachute Music to host the mega-event and that discussions were already in progress with the organisers to extend that contract “well beyond 2013”. Mr Calder said the event continues to have a unique fit in the marketplace, which combined with the experience of camping at Mystery Creek Events Centre, provides a unique festival atmosphere unlike any other in New Zealand.
“When you look at Parachute’s nine-year history partnering with Mystery Creek Events Centre, we have experienced some incredibly good times, hosted some fantastic events and worked with Parachute to ensure every year was better than the last. Our team are focused on delivering the best Parachute Music Festival yet,” explains Mr Calder.