Hokitika Wildfoods Festival

Lore & Background

The first festival in March 1990 coincided with Hokitika's 126th anniversary and was run by Heritage Hokitika. It took place on Gibson Quay with 30 stalls and attracted 1,800 people. Alison Holst was the celebrity judge. The festival has traditionally been held on the second Saturday in March. By 1992 visitor numbers had grown to 3,800, and a squall blew down the festival tent. In 1993 the festival moved to Cass Square, which has a capacity of 10,000. In 1994 the festival was opened by West Coast Member of Parliament Damien O'Connor rather than the Mayor of Westland, prompting one councillor to decry the involvement of a 'foreigner' as 'propaganda by the Labour Party'.

Reader's Guide

The Hokitika Wildfoods Festival is significant for its celebration of unusual and locally foraged foods, drawing visitors from across New Zealand and overseas. At its height in 2003, attendance peaked at 22,500, though Hokitika's population was only 3,500. The festival has faced challenges, including under-age revellers causing damage, leading to a cap on ticket sales at 15,000 and a downtown liquor ban. Despite financial losses in some years, the Westland District Council continued to run the festival due to its economic benefit, estimated at $6.5 million a year for the West Coast region in 2012. The festival creates around 47 full-time-equivalent jobs and supports community fundraising. It received a New Zealand Tourism Award in 2005 in the Innovation category. After 29 years of council management, the festival was outsourced in 2019 to Destination Westland.

Did You Know?

• The first festival in 1990 had 30 stalls and attracted 1,800 people.
• In 1992 a squall blew down the festival tent.
• At its peak in 2003, the festival sold over 100 kilograms of whitebait and 19,000 litres of beer.
• The 1999 New Zealand feature film Magik and Rose is set before and during the festival.

A Small Town's Big Idea: Origins and Early Years

The festival was born in March 1990 when local wine producer Claire Bryant, who made gorse-flower and rose-petal wine, wanted to celebrate the West Coast's flavours and produce. The inaugural event coincided with Hokitika's 125th anniversary and was organized by Heritage Hokitika in a newly developed heritage area on Gibson Quay in downtown Hokitika. Thirty stalls lined the space, and 1,800 people turned out. Celebrity judge Alison Holst presided over the proceedings. The timing was deliberate: the second Saturday in March traditionally marks the driest stretch of weather on the West Coast. By the third festival in 1992, attendance had nearly doubled to 3,800, though a squall brought down the festival tent that year. The growing crowd prompted a move in 1993 to Cass Square, which could hold up to 10,000 people. That same year marked a political shift: for the first time, the West Coast Member of Parliament, Damien O'Connor, opened the event rather than the Mayor of Westland, drawing criticism from a councillor who called the involvement of a "foreigner" Labour Party propaganda.

The Menu of the Absurd

The festival's signature identity rests on its deliberately outrageous food offerings. Huhu grubs—the larvae of the large New Zealand beetle Prionoplus reticularis—are pulled from chopped-up rotten logs on site, sometimes served live to the brave or the inebriated, but more often grilled and described as nutty and meaty. "Westcargots" are prepared from the introduced European snail Cornu aspersum, gathered by locals from their own gardens and prepped by Westland High School teachers or the Hokitika Girl Guides and Brownies. Other staples include sheep testicles dubbed "mountain oysters," pigs' nipples and snouts on sticks, and stallion semen squirted from a syringe, with a microscope available for examining live spermatozoa. One year the Hokitika Rotary Club served home-brewed moonshine through a sheep drenching gun. The broader menu has also featured chicken feet, jellied fish eye shots, lamb tails, crocodile and kangaroo bites, baby octopus, fish heads, pig pizzle, sheep brain pâté, sweetbreads, wild pork, whitebait fritters, pāua, pipi, wasp larvae ice cream, deer and bull semen, gorse-flower wine, earthworms, possum, and pig's trotters.

Scaling Up: Management, Growth, and the 2003 Peak

After early years under the South Westland Community Activities Trust, Westland District Council took over operations in 1993, appointing Mike Keenan as festival coordinator alongside Lance Rae and a voluntary committee that grew to 17 members by 2005. Sponsorship came from Westpower, later absorbed by Trustpower in 1999, and from Monteith's. By 1996 the festival had reached its peak of 90 stalls. After a decade of steady growth, attendance hit 22,500 in 2003—against a Hokitika population of just 3,500. That year saw over 100 kilograms of whitebait and 19,000 litres of beer sold. More than half the visitors came from Canterbury, 81 percent from the South Island, only 2 percent from Auckland, and 9 percent from overseas. The festival earned a New Zealand Tourism Award in the Innovation category in 2005. Keenan led the event for 21 years until the Council disestablished its events department in 2014. Subsequent managers included Ashley Cassin, Sarah Brown, and Amber Popaite of Destination Westland, which took over operations in 2019 after 29 years of Council management.

Economic Engine and Community Lifeline

A 2012 BERL study valued the festival's annual benefit to the West Coast region at $6.5 million. It was estimated to create 47 full-time-equivalent jobs and boost accommodation demand at the tail end of summer, when Hokitika had only about 600 hotel and motel rooms in 2003, prompting residents to rent out private rooms. Around 60 community groups ran stalls or provided services for fundraising, collectively raising over $110,000; the Karamea Community Hall, for instance, refurbished its kitchen with proceeds from its stall. Each visitor stayed an average of 2.5 days and spent roughly $540. The festival's largest age group was 21-to-29-year-olds, and 90 percent of attendees came from outside the West Coast region—an unusually high proportion for a national event. After five years of losses, the festival returned to profitability in 2016, having cut expenses by $120,000 and revived its beach pre-party and after-party. The 2022 edition was postponed to the following year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand.

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