Student-led beer festival attracts thousands, but only a few hundred Scarfies
Turns out students are good at organising a beer festival.
Now in its eighth year, this weekend’s Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival should see 12,000 people pour through the gates of Forsyth Barr Stadium to sup on ale and cider and enjoy music from the likes of Don McGlashan and Ladi6.
Perhaps unusually for Dunedin, most of those beer lovers will not be students.
The festival is run by the Otago University and Students’ Association (OUSA), which launched it eight years ago on the concrete pad at Forsyth Barr as rain, wind and hail struck the roof.
“In those first couple of years, people were pretty nervous,'’ Jason Schroeder, OUSA’s events and venues operations manager admits.
That trepidation wasn’t entirely unfounded, with students’ alcohol-fuelled incidents attracting negative headlines.
Schroeder said for many it was difficult to understand why OUSA would put on a beer festival, which crucially was not aimed at students.
But word soon spread about the event, and by the next year the festival had encroached to a part of the grass, and then the year after reached the halfway line.
Within four years it covered the entire grass surface, and in recent years has become a two-day event, Friday and Saturday, with the former aimed at working professionals, Schroeder said.
Poll: Should we ditch daylight saving? 🕰️
First introduced in New Zealand in 1927 with the passing of the Summer Time Act, it's what we know as 'Daylight Saving' and this year it ends on the first Sunday in April.
While we do get to sleep in this time around, some people would like to scrap the clock tinkering for good.
And why? Some evidence suggests the time changes are bad for our health as they mess with sleep patterns leading to short-term fatigue and affecting mood. Meanwhile the hour change is frustrating for farmers and a nightmare for getting the littlies to sleep. But what's your take?
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41.1% Yes - get rid of the clock changes
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57.3% No, I enjoy it
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1.5% Other - I'll share below
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Alan and Hazel Kerr share Senior New Zealander of the Year Award 2026
Dr Alan and Hazel Kerr describe themselves as ‘just ordinary old Kiwis’, despite being named as the 2026 Ryman Healthcare Senior New Zealanders of the Year Te Mātāpuputu o te Tau.
The amazing couple prompted a standing ovation at a star-studded Auckland event which recognised their tireless efforts, with Alan travelling to and from Gaza and the West Bank 40 times to help children over 20 years, and Hazel travelling 20 times.
Click read more to find out more.
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