Marlborough Wine & Food Festival — Local services in South Island

Could be fabulous but.. $60+ entry fee plus $25 for the bus only gets you there and back. We'd expected at least one free drink but All the wineries charge. On the positive side there are loads of different wineries there so you can try all sorts but at $3 (cheapest) per tester or $5+ per large glass, it soon mounts up. The cookery demos were free and amusing, the bands ditto though the quality varied. The real problem is there's very little seating or shade. Those in the know took chairs and positioned themselves in the shaded areas early on but for newbies like us and on a very hot day it wasn't very comfortable. Very well attended so a good buzz. Tips:take a seat, hat and...

The buses were very efficient this year. It was super easy . The Portaloos were really clean and I didn't need to queue at all. The food was noticeably more expensive but it has been a couple years so things have gone up. Big ups to brancott for the $ 5 full glasses of wine! . Cashless was good . Fees are a pain though! The new venue seemed to work well. Lots of tables and umbrellas for people if they got there early enough. We done to...

What a disaster badly organised there is no consideration for stall holders to carry their stock we have to walk long way to reach to our stall and the power point keep tripping ...Security personal were very rude and stupid the council staff were very uncooperative ..we been told to serve food at 75%C while intoxicated ........Title to gain personal scores....Very sad Day throw away $5000.00 worth of food...