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Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Wānaka developer aiming to bring ‘world-class' concert venue to town
Three Parks will host the former Gibbston Valley Winery concert. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Wānaka developer Allan Dippie wants to bring a "world-class" concert venue to town, when Three Parks hosts the former Gibbston Valley Winery concert. Last week, Greenstone Entertainment announced the concert was on the move and due to grow, after its 15-year stint at Gibbston Valley Station. It was confirmed that Willowridge director Mr Dippie had raised his hand for the prize and plans to expand the former 15,000 crowd to a capacity of 30,000. "I have personally received a huge amount of positive feedback and support from Wānaka locals since the announcement last week that the Greenstone summer concerts are moving to the Three Parks Outdoor Arena in Wānaka," he said. "The community is very excited at the prospect of the town hosting the concerts and everywhere I've been around the town I'm getting a great reaction to the news." Initially rumoured to be looking at Robrosa Station, between Queenstown and Wānaka — the site of the annual Rhythm & Alps gig — Greenstone confirmed the 60ha Three Parks Outdoor Arena in Wānaka. Three Parks is hoping to get fast-track approval for about 900 new homes, a commercial area and potentially a school on its land, meaning areas, including for carparking, may not be available in future years for concerts of this scale. Greenstone Entertainment chief executive Amanda Calvert said they chose Wānaka as they wished to stay in the area, where the concert had success. "We are very fortunate to have found a fantastic supporter in Wānaka local Allan Dippie whose knowledge and connections have been invaluable." Under the existing consent, up to 18,000 are permitted at the site. About 14,000 people attended this year's concert in January, featuring Everclear, Bic Runga, Icehouse and Cold Chisel. Greenstone's application sought land use consent to hold up to three one-day events a year for the next five years, with a maximum of 30,000 attending. Mr Dippie said the venue could become world class and entice more artists. Three Parks hosted Wheels at Wānaka four times, reeling in over 60,000 people to its final show in March. "From Willowridge's point of view, it's our job to create a world-class venue at Three Parks and to provide the best atmosphere and concert experience at the venue as possible. "It will be important to create a venue that quickly gets an artist's reputation for excellence and that concert-goers love as well. We will be putting everything into creating something world class in terms of a unique outdoor concert setting." He confirmed some proceeds would go back into the Upper Clutha community, as they had with Wheels at Wānaka. "We are also doing this for the Upper Clutha community; it's not only a chance for locals to enjoy the concerts and local businesses to benefit from them but we will also be putting money back into a diverse range of community groups and initiatives". The 2026 event is pegged to employ more than 200 locals. Buses will be provided from Queenstown, Arrowtown and Cromwell to reduce traffic disruption and volume on the roads. According to the application, the proposal will result in a "less than minor effect on the surrounding roading network". The Wheels at Wānaka event attracted criticism from some members of the public and councillors as the roads were jammed with traffic over the long Easter weekend. Full dates for the 2026 Greenstone Summer Concert tour will be announced soon, with the full artist line-up to be confirmed shortly after.
Otago Daily Times
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
‘Brand new' event coming next year
Despite having to justify the Easter influx of 65,000 visitors, Wheels at Wānaka general manager Allan Dippie intends to bring to town another event in 2026. In April, Wheels at Wānaka brought in its biggest crowd and Wānaka's biggest crowd in one day to an event, with 50,000 visitors on the Saturday of the long weekend. The flood of people to town meant roads were blocked and some inconvenienced locals took to Facebook pages airing their concerns about traffic lines. While some locals complained about being held up, the event brought in millions to the local economy and businesses across town reeled in record sales. Still, post-event, the Queenstown Lakes District Council approached Mr Dippie to explain why the event exceeded the predicted numbers and why nothing was done about limiting those coming to the event. The event caused extreme traffic congestion on Wānaka roads during the long weekend, which upset some locals, despite the event being announced two years in advance. Mr Dippie and his events team had predicted about 45,000, going by previous years. "There has been a bit of a discussion about Wheels at Wānaka from the council. "Since the event, council sent us a 'please explain' email and started getting a bit toey about things and threatening possible enforcement action. I think one of the local councillors might have been the driving force behind the email." This is in reference to Wānaka councillor and deputy mayor Quentin Smith, who has been vocal about traffic congestion around the show. Mr Dippie wrote back to the council, explaining that the wet weather forecast over Easter had meant much of the crowd showed up to the Saturday event, and so crowds were not evenly spread. The event did not account for the huge number of children with their parents, he said. "They wanted to know how we were planning on stopping so many coming, which is kind of not possible with a family event of this nature. "We had over 50,000 people in one day, which has never been seen in Wānaka before and probably not likely to be seen again for a long time. "People were being rarked up on Facebook by one of the local councillors," he said. While Mr Dippie has taken an apologetic approach to the traffic issues, he is also very pleased with how the event turned out and has labelled it a huge success. "I think council might be out of step with people at times but in general events are great things and the community welcomes them." He said most of the businesses he spoke to in town had broken record sales over the Easter weekend. The council accepted Mr Dippie's explanation and will not be taking matters any further with any sort of prosecution or investigation. A spokesperson said the event was a welcome boost to local hospitality and retail businesses. "Wheels at Wānaka in particular attracted many people to town. We're certainly aware of the heavy traffic which caused disruption in the township and roads leading into it at peak times. Wheels at Wānaka's organisers confirmed beforehand that this would be their last event. "In general, council considers the requirements of all events regarding their demand for services and potential impact on local infrastructure such as roading as part of each resource consent application." The council added that Warbirds Over Wānaka, which is held every second Easter, was likely to attract the same number of people next year, but its location at the Wānaka airport would mean less inconvenience in town. "Events of all sizes continue to be important economic drivers for the Upper Clutha and our district as a whole." The Wheels at Wānaka event is run by the Wheels at Wānaka Charitable Trust and donates its surplus back into the community each year, across several community focused groups. The trust would be announcing the recipients later this month and at this stage things were looking very positive for record community donations, Mr Dippie said. "You can imagine the trust getting fined by the QLDC and incurring legal costs would have would not have gone down so well, so I'm glad common sense has prevailed." Mr Dippie confirmed he was in the early planning stages of a 2026 event for the town but was tight-lipped about what that would be. "We are not easily put off and I do encourage council to not put others off and actually encourage events. You don't want to be the council that makes it hard for events. "We will be announcing a future event but a different type of event. The community should be standing by for something brand new, next year, another event, 2026. "We always said we would try to do new and different things."
Otago Daily Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Councillors agreed with Dippie's email insults
A prominent Dunedin businessman has apologised for calling councillors weird, woke and out of their depth. Allan Dippie's views about councillors were contained in an email exchange when he butted heads with mayoral candidate and fellow businessman Andrew Simms over the planned $100 million Smooth Hill landfill south of Brighton. Mr Dippie yesterday said he had had an "unusual response from the councillors in terms of them telling me that they weren't offended". Instead, they backed his support for the Smooth Hill landfill, he said. The commentary in the emails, which both businessmen have now shared with the Otago Daily Times , "was kind of a bit of private banter", Mr Dippie said. "I did have the graciousness to apologise. "I apologised to the councillors, and then I got a whole lot of councillors backing me. Mr Dippie shared texts and emails he had received from councillors in response to his apology , which included: "I totally agree with your weird and woke comment, no apology needed from me ... " And: "Thanks for your email. No offence taken. Your submission was so refreshing thank you. It was great." Cr Steve Walker said: "I'm hard to offend Allan, so no issue from me. To be honest, I've begun taking it as a compliment being referred to as woke!" Mr Dippie's emails — in which he said Mr Simms had been "hijacked by both the existing landfill operators and some alarmist Nimbys" — questioned both the quality of the Future Dunedin ticket that Mr Simms assembled for the October election as well as the present crop of councillors. "Just look at the lack of talent and the general weirdness and wokeness of some of the present councillors, probably the best money they have ever been on and ever will be," Mr Dippie wrote. "The scary thing is these individuals are sometimes in charge of decisions way beyond their capability. "It's probably cruel." The email exchange included Mr Dippie's brother Martin Dippie and council chief executive Sandy Graham copied in. Mr Dippie said yesterday he copied in the chief executive as a courtesy. Mr Simms said yesterday the fact Ms Graham was copied into the emails was why they were now public. However, he "immediately pushed back" on Mr Dippie's characterisation of both prospective councillors and sitting councillors because it was "really unfair". "I think the 'private banter' argument kind of disappears when you start copying the chief executive of the DCC into emails." Mr Simms said he wanted a discussion of the merits of building a landfill at Smooth Hill compared with transporting waste to AB Lime's landfill at Winton, but Mr Dippie had made his criticism of this through an "attack" calling Mr Simms' position "populist electioneering" and claiming he had been captured by those with a vested interest. "The affordability of rates is going to be a big issue this election, as is the mounting core council debt," Mr Simms said. "And both of those things are contributed to significantly by a decision to spend $100 million on a landfill when there is an option that doesn't seem to have received sufficient consideration." Ms Graham did not respond to ODT questions yesterday. A council spokesman said "it was not a staff matter". However, Cr Mandy Mayhem said there were "some great minds" around the council table. "I am sure Mr Dippie is embarrassed about his remarks." Cr Carmen Houlahan said she appreciated Mr Dippie's comments about Smooth Hill at the hearings. "His comments are unacceptable but need to be taken in context that they were private communication between him and Andrew Simms," she said. It did a disservice to the community when a project was being "slammed for the purpose of electioneering", Cr Bill Acklin said. "I think the greater concern for the community is expensive advertisements containing individuals' opinions being delivered as if they were facts." Cr Sophie Barker said she was pleased to receive "and accept" Mr Dippie's apology, which celebrated councillors' diversity. Cr Andrew Whiley said he did not believe Mr Dippie owed councillors an apology. Cr Brent Weatherall said everyone was entitled to an opinion and it was "sad" Mr Dippie felt the need to apologise..
Otago Daily Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Dippie apologises for comments
A prominent Dunedin businessman has apologised for calling councillors weird, woke and out of their depth. Allan Dippie's views about councillors were contained in an email exchange when he butted heads with mayoral candidate and fellow businessman Andrew Simms over the planned $100 million Smooth Hill landfill south of Brighton. Mr Dippie yesterday said he had had an "unusual response from the councillors in terms of them telling me that they weren't offended". Instead, they backed his support for the Smooth Hill landfill, he said. The commentary in the emails, which both businessmen have now shared with the Otago Daily Times , "was kind of a bit of private banter", Mr Dippie said. "I did have the graciousness to apologise. "I apologised to the councillors, and then I got a whole lot of councillors backing me. Mr Dippie shared texts and emails he had received from councillors in response to his apology , which included: "I totally agree with your weird and woke comment, no apology needed from me ... " And: "Thanks for your email. No offence taken. Your submission was so refreshing thank you. It was great." Cr Steve Walker said: "I'm hard to offend Allan, so no issue from me. To be honest, I've begun taking it as a compliment being referred to as woke!" Mr Dippie's emails — in which he said Mr Simms had been "hijacked by both the existing landfill operators and some alarmist Nimbys" — questioned both the quality of the Future Dunedin ticket that Mr Simms assembled for the October election as well as the present crop of councillors. "Just look at the lack of talent and the general weirdness and wokeness of some of the present councillors, probably the best money they have ever been on and ever will be," Mr Dippie wrote. "The scary thing is these individuals are sometimes in charge of decisions way beyond their capability. "It's probably cruel." The email exchange included Mr Dippie's brother Martin Dippie and council chief executive Sandy Graham copied in. Mr Dippie said yesterday he copied in the chief executive as a courtesy. Mr Simms said yesterday the fact Ms Graham was copied into the emails was why they were now public. However, he "immediately pushed back" on Mr Dippie's characterisation of both prospective councillors and sitting councillors because it was "really unfair". "I think the 'private banter' argument kind of disappears when you start copying the chief executive of the DCC into emails." Mr Simms said he wanted a discussion of the merits of building a landfill at Smooth Hill compared with transporting waste to AB Lime's landfill at Winton, but Mr Dippie had made his criticism of this through an "attack" calling Mr Simms' position "populist electioneering" and claiming he had been captured by those with a vested interest. "The affordability of rates is going to be a big issue this election, as is the mounting core council debt," Mr Simms said. "And both of those things are contributed to significantly by a decision to spend $100 million on a landfill when there is an option that doesn't seem to have received sufficient consideration." Ms Graham did not respond to ODT questions yesterday. A council spokesman said "it was not a staff matter". However, Cr Mandy Mayhem said there were "some great minds" around the council table. "I am sure Mr Dippie is embarrassed about his remarks." Cr Carmen Houlahan said she appreciated Mr Dippie's comments about Smooth Hill at the hearings. "His comments are unacceptable but need to be taken in context that they were private communication between him and Andrew Simms," she said. It did a disservice to the community when a project was being "slammed for the purpose of electioneering", Cr Bill Acklin said. "I think the greater concern for the community is expensive advertisements containing individuals' opinions being delivered as if they were facts." Cr Sophie Barker said she was pleased to receive "and accept" Mr Dippie's apology, which celebrated councillors' diversity. Cr Andrew Whiley said he did not believe Mr Dippie owed councillors an apology. Cr Brent Weatherall said everyone was entitled to an opinion and it was "sad" Mr Dippie felt the need to apologise..
