One evening in early 1975, professional touring drummer Peter Doyle, of Sydney, and Laurie Wilde, then manager of Eichardt's Hotel, were chewing the fat in the establishment.
They noticed that skiers headed straight for the bars after a day on Coronet Peak, and realised there was nothing to do for folk who did not head up to the piste during the day.
"We said, why don't we put together a programme that runs for a week and offers fun events at Coronet Peak and during the day and night in town," Mr Doyle said.
The duo went to the organisers of the Pro-Am, Coronet Cup and Freestyle championships to time the festival with the international skiing events.
The championships were held on the peak every August and swelled Queenstown's population.
"The reason for the Winter Festival was never intended to announce the arrival of snow or the ski season," Mr Doyle said.
"It was to have a party in the middle of winter because everyone was here."
The debut Winter Festival in August 1975 was a village fete in all but name.
The sheepdog derby, waiters' races and a pizza-eating competition, along with a race using the boats from TSS Earnslaw and the huge Peak to Park relay race were on the first programme.
Peak to Park was dreamed up by "Sugar" Ray Robinson, former manager of Coronet Peak.
It ran for 25 years and was one of the events Mr Doyle was most proud to co-ordinate.
About 400 competitors in 30 teams relay-raced from the summit of Coronet Peak to Earnslaw Park in a series of novelty heats - the diverse events included chicken-plucking, baby-racing, jelly-wrestling, precision coach-driving, a raft regatta and grandmothers' speed-knitting.
Sponsorship amounted to Mt Cook Airlines donating money to print posters.
Championship prizegivings were turned into parties, businesses took part and live entertainment was laid on in the resort's major hotels - all three of them.
"The whole week became a big celebration of what Queenstown was all about - a fun place to be," Mr Doyle said.
"We planned to do it for that first year only but it got momentum and it became something people looked forward to."
Mr Doyle said the festival stayed at that community level for about five years.
It began to expand when the local branch of the National Travel Association, the equivalent of Destination Queenstown today, took over for most of the 1980s.
DB Breweries and New Zealand Breweries came on board as the first sponsors and Phillipa Moore was the first paid organiser in 1987.
Mr Doyle was involved in the festival from 1975 until 1981 and returned as a paid co-ordinator for the 1989 and 1990 events.
He said he would like to see the festival acknowledge its origins and believes it is timeless, as long as it offers something fresh each year.
"The festival's probably gone the way it had to go with commercialism. The only things that will kill it are the costs, regulations and red tape of compliance.
"I'm sorry to see the local involvement not as strong. Maybe the festival is just aimed at visitors now, but I think plenty of locals would want to get involved and hopefully they will if the right events are there to attract them," Mr Doyle said.
