Aspiring Conversations has cancelled its 2022 event, which was due to take place from March 25-27.

Organisers said today (Thursday January 27) that they had made the difficult decision to cancel due to the current red light setting and the risk of Omicron.

“As you may know, festivals and events are restricted to audiences of 100,” the Aspiring Conversations team said in a statement, “but even if we could make that number work for us it would be impossible to guarantee everyone’s health and wellbeing…”

Aspiring Conversations, which normally takes place every second year, features high-calibre speakers, writers and thinkers discussing and debating the issues of today.

The Aspiring Conversations team hopes much of the programme will be rescheduled to next year’s Festival of Colour, due to take place between March 26 and April 2, 2023. PHOTO: Ants Hansen

The 2020 Aspiring Conversations event was also cancelled as the result of restrictions due to Covid-19.

“While this is yet another setback, we hope to reschedule much of the 2022 Aspiring Conversations programme into next year’s Festival of Colour,” the team said. 

The Festival of Colour, a week-long arts festival, is due to take place between March 26 and April 2, 2023.

Aspiring Conversations is the third major Wānaka event to be cancelled following the move to the red alert setting, with Warbirds over Wānaka and Challenge Wānaka both making the decision this week not to go ahead. 

“We know this is incredibly disappointing,” the Aspiring Conversations team said. 

“We truly appreciate how passionate our community is for this event, and we especially acknowledge the support we have received in getting us this close.”