Everything You Desire In One Place – A successful 2023 Whitianga Oceans Festival.

The 2023 Whitianga Oceans Festival was an absolute success, enjoyed by around 3500 people on a great sunny Whitianga Day.

The event was filled with talented musical acts, incredible cuisine, wine, beers and entertainers.

 

The music was spread over two musical stages, with the mains stage featuring smash hits from the 80’s performed by Frisky Business, Whitianga’s favourite musical son – Vegas Brown and his band with a powerhouse performance with the headlining act White Chapel Jak bringing their funk to the stage.

Eat Street and the Marina Marquee were flowing with a selection of delicious mainly seafood dishes with the queues extended for some of the most popular morsels.  To balance the amazing range of food, attendees had a wide range of NZ wines and beers to enjoy.

 

The New World Whitianga cooking stage was on fire (well not literally) with six top, New Zealand chefs performing demonstrations and the popular 2pm cook off, which saw all chefs battling it out to create the ultimate Kiwi seafood BBQ meal and Nici Wickes emerged the victor.

 

Keeping it festive was the world-famous Mullet man with his flowing locks positioned 8 feet in the air aboard his unicycle juggling firesticks, plus the towering stilt walkers, and a very local style spoon and kina race thanks to SUNZ.

 

The setting for the ‘Oceans Fest’ is simply stunning with the Whitianga Estuary full of yachts and boats providing an amazing back drop for the thousands of photos taken on the day, a true Coromandel backdrop.

 

Vendors around the festival ranged from local food providers, well known national food providers to community groups fundraising for the Mercury Bay region. Along with national brands such as Kōparepare Wines and LegaSea teaming up to support the marine environment and raising over $10,000.

 

After a hiatus of three years, the Oceans Festival is now solidly back on the calendar as one of New Zealand’s ‘must attend’ food and wine festivals.  The day was memorable and has set the bar for 2024 – which will be an even bigger and better festival.

Meet our celebrity chefs

Chef Ray McVinnie
Chef Nici Wickes
Chef Michael van de Elzen
Chef Michael van de Elzen
Chef Michael van de Elzen

Whats on offer?

Whitianga Oceans Festival Sponsors

Email Us

Contact Us

  • pStallholder & General enquiries: Clare Tod
  • info@oceansfestival.co.nz
  • +64 21 231 5901
  • pCo-ordinator: Nick Reader
  • coordinator@oceansfestival.co.nz
  • +64 21 632 721
  • pTicket Support Flicket
  • support@flicket.co.nz
  • +64 921 42183