Community
Icon's don't just happen overnight; the American Express Queenstown Winter Festival 2010 has been 36 years in the making.
Way back in 1975 a bunch of locals decided that the start of Winter was a great excuse to have a party. They organised races on the mountain and in town, lollies for the kids, beers for the grown-ups a concert or two and a town-wide ball, all of which were a great success. News spread quickly and the next year people came from further afield to join in the festivities.
Since then the Festival has evolved into New Zealand's biggest winter party - it's a 10 day celebration of Queenstown's unique culture and community with street parties, fireworks, international and local acts, jazz, comedy, Mardi Gras, family fun, a Big Air Invitational and plenty of Mountain Mayhem.
From June 25 - July 4 this year the town will be a-buzz with around 60,000 people celebrating the arrival of Winter in true Queenstown style - WINTER STARTS HERE!
Your Festival Team
This year's team is passionate about delivering a Festival fuelled with fun and community spirit. Join them in celebrating 36 years of Festival.
Simon Green - Festival Director
Never shy to stand up and belt out a tune or two, Festival Director Simon Green has lived and worked in Queenstown since 1996 and has had direct involvement either from an event production or entertainment perspective in every Festival this decade. He has directed four previous Winter Festivals - 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 and along with the overall event design and management responsibility.
Known as Queenstown's "Mr Entertainment" Simon has a professional theatre background, owns and operates his own creative event management company, has directed and produced numerous theatrical productions, corporate functions and special events and continues to entertain audiences all over New Zealand.
Mandy Kennedy - Marketing & PR
Rolling into year two with Festival Mandy brings with her a wealth of marketing experience from working with local and multi-national companies and is Director of a tourism consultancy company. Mandy's new found passion (aside from her husband and 3 year-old son) is her personal trainer and when not cranking out marketing strategies and dreaming of chocolate cake she manages to fit in some serious work-out sessions.
Caroline Popple - Operations
Kicked off with Festival in 2009 and is our Operations Guru overseeing the operational and logistical aspects of Festival. She has loads of experience in management and tourism and has a passion that is seldom matched for the Winter Festival.
Festival also has the full support of Destination Queenstown and works closely with the CEO, Marketing Manager and Communications Manager in the planning and execution of our marketing and PR activities.
From April we also start adding our event delivery team which includes two Night Event Managers, a Day Event Manager and a Mountain Event Manager along with over a dozen dedicated production personnel and over 100 volunteers.
Mike Heasman (a.k.a. Mikey)- Night Events Manager
Spends most of the year running stages, events and gigs in theatres and venues in the UK and then travels over from Scotland specifically to work for the Queenstown Winter Festival, which he considers to be his favourite event of the many he's done over the years. This is his fourth year working for the festival and he considers it a great privilege to keep coming back to work with such a fantastic and motivated team on a festival which has no comparison back home.
Steph Percy - Events Manager
Steph is delighted to be working her third year with Winter Festival. Coming from a television background Steph also sidelines as a video editor, and specializes in event audio visual and production management. She loves working with the lively winter festival team and the many other great people that festival involves. As the snow starts falling, her recent move to a life on the farm sees Steph very happy to swap her gumboots for party shoes during Winter Festival.
Dave Keppell - Production Assistant
This is David’s first year of working with QWF. His passion for years has been theatre and events. He has travelled extensively around the globe working on various projects; ranging from small theatre productions and musicals to large scale ceremonial events and festivals. Then, 3 and a half years of living in Whistler British Columbia changed his perspective on life and a healthy passion for the outdoors ensued. An active lifestyle and instant love of the mountains and ocean was exactly what the doctor ordered. He looks forward to being back in the mountains and to the opportunity that QWF will afford him to blend both the theatrical and outdoor passions together.
Louise Bird - Volunteer Coordinator
Having volunteered the past two years Louise is stoked to be on board as the Volunteer Coordinator for 2010! A local for 5 years she loves all Queenstown has to offer especially the hills and awesome mountain running tracks. Having travelled lots over the years, most recently to India, Bhutan and Nepal she finds this wee town as close as you get to tripping round the world with all the internationals in town to work and play. Louise volunteered in Northern India teaching English to Tibetan refugees and they loved the Queenstown landscapes she showed them especially the snowy mountains that reminded them of home!
Community Connections
After much success in 2009, Festival and the Bruce Grant Youth Trust have again combined forces to bring back the ‘Winter Festival Special Achiever Award’ - an annual grant from the Bruce Grant Youth Trust.
The Trust was set up in 1995 to preserve the legacy of Bruce Grant, a Queenstown adventurer who died after reaching the summit of K2 in the Himalayas on August 13, 1995. An Olympic skier, mountaineering great, extreme sportsman, Festival legend and an extraordinary individual, Bruce Grant was a Queenstown adventurer whose special attitude to life touched a community and continues to provide inspiration to local young people. The Trust’s purpose is to raise funds to assist or promote the youth of the Wakatipu Basin to undertake sports, arts or cultural activities, in which they excel or show a particular interest.
Be generous and show your support of the Trust at Opening Night, Mardi Gras and the Thriller in The Chiller by digging deep and dropping the cash in the bucket to support our local youth. For more information on the Trust visit www.brucegrantyouthtrust.org.nz.
We also have a long standing association with the Lions Club of Queenstown and are proud to have them as part of our team. In the past four years alone, the Lions’ fundraising efforts at two of our biggest community events, the Opening Party and the Mardi Gras, has meant they have been able to donate close to $75,000 to various local causes. Look out for their mulled wine at these two key events and while you are sipping be assured that your dollars are going to a great cause.
