Wanaka A&P Show Cancelled For First Time In 77 Years

The 2022 Wānaka A&P Show, due to be held on March 11-12, has been cancelled due to Covid-19 red alert restrictions.

The announcement is expected to be a crushing blow for the Wānaka community and wider Queenstown Lakes District and follows the cancellation of several other major events that bring significant economic benefit to the area.

The Wānaka A&P Show attracts 45,000 people across two days and brings more than $28 million in direct economic benefit to the local community each year. “We are devastated that we have to cancel,” Upper Clutha A&P Society chair Mike Scurr says. “We have tried to delay our decision for as long as possible before time constraints prevented our Show community – the management team, sponsors, competitors, trade exhibitors, members, contractors, entertainment providers and volunteers – from successfully setting up and attending the Show.”

Wānaka A&P Show event manager Jane Stalker says: “We have been humbled by the support from so many people in the past couple of weeks, willing us to carry on.

“In the current climate, this event would have provided a much-needed cash injection to hundreds of trade exhibitors and, importantly, to our local accommodation and hospitality businesses, plus local community groups,” Stalker says.

“Every year we get told that the Show is a great community event, which provides opportunities for people to network, catch up with old friends and gain an immense sense of pride in seeing their hard work on show – whether that’s in homemade crafts, home-grown produce or livestock. We are saddened that we’re unable to provide this opportunity to enable social wellbeing and economic stimulus,” she adds.

The not-for-profit Upper Clutha A&P Society has organised the Wānaka A&P Show since its inception in 1934. The only time the Show was ever cancelled was between 1939-1945, during World War 2.