Alexandra may lose its annual Blossom Festival concert due to a lack of support for last Saturday's Contact Alex Live event.
Only a small number of people bought tickets to last weekend's Saturday night concert in Pioneer Park, at which New Zealand bands Spacifix, Atlas, The Valves, and singer-songwriter Hollie Smith performed.
Only about 400 tickets were sold, 800 fewer than the Alexandra Blossom Festival committee budgeted on selling.
Tickets sold for $42 (advance) and $48.
Festival project manager Karin Bowen said initial estimates put the concert's financial loss at $30,000.
"That's a lot of money, and a major concern. Until we know exactly how many tickets sold, and crunch the numbers, we won't know for sure how much impact the concert has had on the festival as a whole.
"We try not to separate individual events when we sort out how much money was made or lost. We will take into account how the other festival events did, when debriefing," she said.
Mrs Bowen said already more tickets than budgeted had sold for the WoolOn Creative Fashion Event, which takes place in Pioneer Park on Saturday.
"That may counter-balance the financial shortfall from the concert in some way, but I'm sure the committee will have to re-evaluate if the concert can be held again," she said.
Mrs Bowen said the festival committee was disappointed the community had not supported the concert, because it was especially included in the annual event as something for young people.
"I'm mystified as to why it wasn't as popular as we thought. The line-up was fantastic, and when the bands were initially announced, there was a huge amount of excitement about it," she said.
Mrs Bowen said the cold weather on Saturday may have contributed to more people staying at home, and ticket sales for the Saturday in the Park activities were also slightly down.
"It wasn't so bad for Saturday in the Park.
"It must have been more than the weather [contributing to low concert sales]," she said.
Saturday's Contact Alex Live concert was the most expensive event of the festival to stage, mainly due to the cost of hosting four popular New Zealand acts.
Mrs Bowen said of all events in the festival which needed to break even financially, the concert was number one.
"It's got to be sustainable," she said.
