Promote Dunstan Wine and Food festival

The annual Clyde Wine and Food Harvest Festival is held on Easter Sunday each year in one of New Zealand’s historic showpieces – Clyde’s main street which retains many of the characteristics and the buildings of the gold rush days of the nineteenth century.

The most recent Festival was on Easter Sunday, April 12th, 2009.

The festival is a celebration of the wine produced by the world’s most southerly vineyards extending from south of the Clyde Dam to Ettrick. From humble beginnings as a harvest festival in 2001 when about five wineries took part, the festival now attracts up to more than 20 local wineries.

The festival is deliberately kept local to preserve its unique atmosphere and its popularity is spreading with visitors from other parts of New Zealand and overseas tourists coming to sample the famed Central Otago Pinot Noir and other varieties of wine.

Part of the main street and a side road are closed to traffic to allow visitors to mingle and sample the food and wine and listen to live music throughout the day. There is also a market where goods ranging from plants and produce to crafts and clothes are sold as well as an exhibition by the Central Otago Art Society in the historic Masonic Lodge within the festival area. There are also activities for children.

The festival runs from 11a.m. to 5p.m and entry is $10 or $15 with a glass. (Wine will not be sold unless you have a glass). Entry for children is free.
The festival is organised by Promote Dunstan, a non-profit making incorporated society.(see Promote Dunstan) Money raised at the Festival is donated to community groups and used by Promote Dunstan to stage other community events.

Come and enjoy Central Otago’s stunning autumn colours and a glass of Pinot Noir, the region’s internationally acclaimed wine, at its annual Wine and Food Festival.