John Minty News Today

The Coast to Coast and the Queenstown Marathon are now in doubt after a cascade of other event cancellations due to the shift to the 'red' traffic light setting.

The Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Act 2021 has made it easier for drug testers to operate at festivals. But there's more work to be done to ensure young people remain safe, advocates say.

Brent Eccles is urging the unvaccinated to promptly get the jab, after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern indicated more freedoms would arrive as soon as regions started hitting 90 per cent vaccination.

Covid-19 alert levels are going down at midnight but some upcoming events are still unlikely to go ahead or have been postponed.

Ninety per cent of the festival’s line-up will still perform in March, he said. The festival chose to pack its programme with 100 per cent Kiwi acts, a decision which is paying off now – with an international line-up, postponing would have been much trickier, Minty said. LAWRENCE SMITH/Stuff Splore Festival was supposed to take place next weekend. Ticketholders who cannot make the new date or do not feel comfortable attending a large event will be able to get a refund. Organisers for la...

Covid 19 coronavirus: Splore announces new dates for the three-day music and arts festival 17 Feb, 2021 04:36 AM 3 minutes to read Splore director John Minty announced the date change for Splore to March 26-28, saying the move will ensure attendees can "celebrate Splore safely". Photo / File NZ Herald Organisers have postponed the Splore Festival to March 26-28 at the same location, Tāpapakanga Regional Park, Auckland. The decision was in light of Auckland remaining under level 2 Covid restric...

Covid-19 alert level change: Which events have been affected Thursday, February 18, 2021 RNZ Despite Covid-19 alert levels going down at midnight, some upcoming events are either unlikely to go ahead or have been postponed. Despite this, Napiers Art Deco Festival remains cancelled and Aucklands Splore festival and its pride parade have also been impacted. Christchurch 2011 earthquake anniversary commemorations will go ahead as planned, however. Auckland Mayor Phil Goff told  Ch...

Splore 2021: John Minty on Covid nightmares, keeping the festival quirky and Treaty relationships 13 Feb, 2021 04:00 PM 10 minutes to read Saturday nights dress-up party is one of the most popular features of Splore. Photo / File Saturday nights dress-up party is one of the most popular features of Splore. Photo / File Social issues reporter, NZ Heraldmichael.neilson@nzherald.co.nz Fifteen years ago Splore was on the edge of collapse. Now, the festival has sold out three years in a row and, in ...

Music and arts festival reduces carbon emissions, with those it can't avoid completely being offset by verified carbon credits.

I bought the section the apartment building is on as an investment quite a few years ago. I just felt that this area would probably get developed into more intensive housing. Thats what the council was pushing for. I bought that, half expecting at some stage, a developer might approach me to buy the land and build an apartment building. Thats exactly what did happen in the end. I said to the developer, “Ill sell you the land for the apartment building, but I need a place on the roof.” I ga...