"The festival is limitless in what it can contain. We just need to make sure that it's manageable," Winter Games chief executive Arthur Klap said.
Although the Games would remain primarily a winter sports festival, organisers were aiming to build something around it so "there's things off the hill, or away from the stadiums that are of interest or are entertaining", he said.
For the month of August, the Queenstown Memorial Hall will serve as a Games information centre, as well as a venue for possible festival events, while snowsports awards ceremonies will be held on the Village Green.
There would be bands playing on a stage set up there.
"So instead of it just being a 15-minute presentation there will be three hours of entertainment around it," Mr Klap said.
Organisers were working to establish designated Winter Games venues around town which would host gigs, he said.
"So that automatically provides entertainment. We're using local businesses to provide the services rather than taking that business away from them."
There would also be some "surprise announcements" of downtown events, he said.
The inclusion of a festival timetable is part of the Winter Games' 25-year plan to attract 25,000 non-competing visitors to the Games region, a target Mr Klap says is ambitious, but achievable.
"We've set targets this time around for 2000 to come down from outside the region and 1700 from Australia, and it's on top of the numbers [1500 people] that we're aiming for competitors and management."
To make that target a reality, organisers are working with regional tourism organisations, Tourism New Zealand, Air New Zealand and the Australian market to raise the profile of the Games.
Mr Klap last week said the growth would come from Australia, North America and the North Island, by attracting "a cycle of casual skiing and snowboarding" in conjunction with the off-mountain festival programmes in Dunedin, Naseby, Queenstown, Wanaka and Methven.
If this year's visitor target is successful, organisers may be closer to another of their targets - income of $50 million for the entire Games region.
To ensure communities maximise the benefits, a leveraging and legacy committee has been set up, with Queenstown Lakes District mayor Vanessa van Uden as chairwoman. It also includes representatives of the Dunedin City Council, the Government, Sparc and Snowsports New Zealand.
Mr Klap, who also sits on the committee, said it had put together a plan to ensure local and sports communities "get benefits as well as New Zealand in terms of economic return".
"That makes it quite different from all other events in the region, in that there's a long-term plan on how the benefits come back to the community."
