Initial figures show more than 30,000 people attended the second Tāmaki Herenga Waka Festival, more than double the numbers of the first festival.
Approximately 13,500 people attended the inaugural festival in 2016, and raw figures from this Auckland Anniversary Weekend indicated 33,500 people attended this year’s festival in its new location of the ANZ Viaduct Events Centre, Karanga Plaza and the Viaduct Basin.
For comparison, that is approximately the same number of people who attend the Auckland Diwali Festival every year.
The free waka paddling experiences booked out, with more than 1100 free waka experiences tickets given out over the weekend.
More than 600 tickets were allocated for the waka hourua (ocean-going waka) sailings.
In the Tāmaki Makaurau Māori Tourism Space, more than 2550 people received kirituhi or temporary Maori facial tattoos.
Māori Tourism representatives also fielded queries from young Māori interested in tour guiding, and festival goers interested in starting up their own tourism business. In addition, three young Māori events graduates and professionals to part in the festival observer programme.