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
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.
