This year's Bluff Oyster & Food Festival has been cancelled.

The iconic annual festival was to have been held in May but the threat of further Covid outbreaks and possible rapid changes to the traffic light settings has lead to the committee's unanimous decision.

Festival Chairman, John Edminstin said it would be “irresponsible” to host the event considering it would bring large numbers of people from all over the country to Bluff in these uncertain times.

“We had hoped to be further along with our site developments and if the Club Hotel could have been demolished, we would have more space to allow better social distancing.”

MC Tere Ngu, Festival Chairman John Edminstin and Bluff Town Crier Ian ‘Harry’ Holland at the opening ceremony of the 2021 Bluff Oyster & Food Festival. Photo: Andrew Baird.  

“Increased compliance costs in a time when events may need to be cancelled after those costs were outlaid in advance were also a factor in the decision,” he said.

The popular long-running festival has it's origins in the 1990's, with the current annual event starting in 2008.

The festival was cancelled in 2020 when New Zealand went into lockdown due to the COVID pandemic.

However 2021's event did go ahead and saw a capacity crowd and tickets sell out in under an hour.

No tickets for this year's event were offered for sale.