The Alexandra Blossom Festival Committee has announced the cancellation of the 65th Contact Alexandra Blossom Festival, but promises to come back better than ever next year.

The committee made the difficult decision to cancel the 65th Alexandra Blossom Festival as a result of uncertainty around COVID-19.

Committee chairwoman Sharleen Stirling-Lindsay says the decision was not made lightly, and though heavy-hearted, the committee were unanimous.

“On behalf of the committee we are absolutely gutted we had to make this decision,’’ Sharleen says.

“But Level 2 (under COVID-19 Delta variant) doesn’t look like the Level 2 we’ve had in the past. We could not guarantee that Level 1, if we made it there in time, would look like the Level 1 we have known.’’

Sharleen says the committee did not want to offer the community a lesser version of the festival. 

“The community deserves to celebrate,’’ she said.

She hoped those who had planned to travel to the festival and booked accommodation would still come as there was still plenty to do in Alexandra. 

Principal festival sponsor Contact Energy was in support of the committee's decision, Contact community relations manager Neil Gillespie said.

“I’m absolutely gutted for a) the committee and b) the community that we can’t have the 65th celebration of the festival,’’ Neil says. 

“Contact is fully supportive of the decision and we look forward to next year when we can do it justice.”

Blossom Festival event manager Martin McPherson says he was “beyond disappointed” but was fully supportive of the committee, understanding the difficult decision needed to be made in order to stay in line with COVID-19 restrictions and keep people safe.

“To say we’re gutted is an understatement - I’m disappointed not only for the festival and all the people who have put so much effort into it, but also Alexandra. The Blossom Festival is such an important part of our community,” Martin says.

Vendors, entertainment and other festival participants will be contacted directly this week regarding the cancellation.

The Blossom Festival Committee would look at holding an event for the Alexandra community later this year if alert levels allowed, Sharleen says.

In the meantime, we can all still enjoy the blossoms on the trees.