With a sense of sadness, the Oamaru Wine and Food Festival committee members have unanimously voted to wind up the event after financial losses in recent years.
The Oamaru Wine and Food Festival, which started in the late 1990s, costs about $25,000 a year to run and needs 750 ticket sales to break even. Crowds had averaged about 500 in recent years and losses had eaten into reserves, chairman Mark Julius said.
''Its time is up and we've been very fortunate to be able to keep it running for so long,'' he said.
There had, however, been an expression of interest from a local business to run a festival with a similar format in Oamaru in the future.
''We will set up a meeting and pass on some of that information about how [the festival] works,'' Mr Julius said.
''We're happy to work with any group that was interested in finding out how the festival ran ... to pass on that information.''
There was a sense of sadness when the vote was made at the committee's annual meeting on Thursday night, he said.
The nature of the event and the surroundings of the Oamaru Public Gardens had always made the Oamaru Wine and Food Festival special.
''I know lots and lots of locals who have been there since day one, who have gone every year ... groups of friends that have always congregated at every festival and enjoyed it.''
''There have been stallholders that have been constant all the way through, either been involved in running it or being there ... because they love it so much.''
