2013 Maketu Kaimoana Festival - a fantastic event with a record setting crowd

 

Eight centuries ago when the great Maori navigator, Tametekapua, beached his waka (canoe) on the shores of Aotearoa he could have never envisioned the future of his new home.  And most certainly, he could not have pictured a festival taking place, virtually on the spot where he landed, which celebrated the abundant  kaimoana (seafood)  in that place which today is aptly called the Bay of Plenty.

Eight years ago, when a fledging Maketu Rotary club was establishing itself in the small village where Tamatekapua landed, little could they have imagined that the Kaimoana Festival  they had created as their first major fundraising project would become one of the Bay of Plenty’s most popular annual summer events.

The Kaimoana Festival, now in its sixth year, was the vision of the club’s second president, Julie Crossley.   She notes that “the first festival started with a roar and ended with a splash”.  Ticket pre-sales had resulted in a “Sold Out” sign going up a few days before the event.  And then on the day of the event, the heavens opened to deliver one of the heaviest rainstorms the village had seen.  Nonetheless, many hearty Kiwi festival goers showed up and some had to have their cars pulled out of the mud before they could go home.

Undaunted, the Maketu Rotarians soon launched into planning the next year’s festival, and the next, and the next.  And this February the Maketu Kaimoana Festival delivered its sixth “Celebration of Seafood”, this time to record crowds. 

Locals often refer to their community as “Magic Maketu”, and with good reason.  With a population of just 1,000 it is the home of several outstanding volunteer organisations.  These include a fire brigade that was recently named New Zealand’s number one brigade, a sea rescue unit that operates  under the New Zealand Coastguard umbrella and has responsibility for hundreds of square kilometers of the bay, and a surf lifesaving club that engages many local youth and provides  vital beach patrols during the summer months.  

These, and other community organisations become part of the Kaimoana Festival from assisting with set-up, to providing first aid on the day, to staffing  the event, to running stalls that generate funds for their own group.  In the end they, and many other community projects, share in the rewards.

Charles Peni, this year’s Kaimoana Festival chairman and past club president, says that Maketu is filled with people who embody Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self ”.   He added, “so it is no surprise that this tiny village can support a vibrant Rotary club of 30 members”.

But the magic of Maketu Rotary’s Kaimoana Festival doesn’t stop with supporting the local community.   The club has a policy that commits 10% of every fundraising effort to The Rotary Foundation.  This policy has resulted in making the club one of the top annual Foundation contributors in District 9930.  And, it has also inspired personal giving to The Rotary Foundation by its members.

The 2013 Maketu Kaimoana Festival closed on a high note with the crowd getting to its feet and dancing to the pulsating music of the “Sunrise Rockers”.  What made this especially sweet was that the “Sunrise Rockers” are a top band composed of members of the Rotorua Sunrise Rotary Club,  just an hour down the road from Maketu. 

On the surface the Maketu Kaimoana Festival appears to be all about seafood.  But in reality it’s all about people.   It’s about building a community  and supporting people who serve that community in a variety of ways.  It’s about Rotarians who really rock, from collecting tickets to belting it out on stage.

 
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Click here to read about the behind-scenes aspects of promoting this event.