A change in school holidays has caused the cancellation of this year's Midwinter Masquerade mask festival in Oamaru, the first time in the 11-year history of the event.
Organiser and artist Donna Demente did not realise until too late for this year's event the school holidays in July were later this year because of the Rugby World Cup, affecting the usual mid-July date for the festival.
She had considered shifting the date of the event to the last weekend of this month, but found it clashed with a previous commitment she had in Dunedin.
Yesterday, she was disappointed the event had to be cancelled, but vowed it would return next year when school holidays went back to normal.
The festival coincides with the school holidays, using the last week of the break to run a mask-making workshop which leads up to the Masquerade on the Saturday night.
