Sergeant Brian Cameron said the police had dealt with a "notable" number of disorder and violence offences over the past two weekends "It's disappointing for police, on what should have been a fun, penultimate night of the winter festival, to be going from incident to incident involving drunken people, particularly males," he said.
The festival was opened by Prime Minister John Key on June 25 and has attracted thousands of people.
Organisers call it the southern hemisphere's largest winter party, and it is said to inject more than $17 million into the local economy.
Sgt Cameron said drunk people looking for trouble and causing fights had marred the event.
He had also noticed under-age people intoxicated and "hanging around" the streets of Queenstown.
"The bars are doing their job by not letting them in, but it is disappointing that people of this age are able to access alcohol and lose the notion of where they should be and end up hanging around the streets.
"It is inevitable trouble occurs," he said.
A 32-year-old Invercargill man was admitted to hospital after a "cowardly attack" in Queenstown Mall yesterday morning.
Sgt Cameron said there seemed to have been an exchange of words between two groups walking in the mall at 1.30am.
The victim and his associates carried on walking but the alleged offender had run at him from behind and hit him on the head, knocking him unconscious.
Doormen from nearby bars intervened but the alleged offender and his friends ran towards Camp St, Sgt Cameron said.
The victim, who was kept overnight at Lakes District Hospital, received mild concussion, a sore wrist and three stitches to a forehead gash.
The attacker was described as European, about 1.8m tall with blond dreadlocks.
He was wearing a white shirt and a dark beanie.
Sgt Cameron said he was hoping to review CCTV footage from bars on the Mall but was also appealing for witnesses to come forward with information.
"It was a cowardly attack on this guy and it seems that over the last couple of weekends we have had a number of similar, but fortunately not as serious, incidents."
