Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

It seems like more locals are enjoying a ‘stay-cation' during the festive season, where locals and visitors celebrate the start of the New Year together.

The city was humming with all the popular hotspots bustling with crowds, including the CBD.

But the hum was not always positive. The Mount's New Year's Eve celebrations were national for the wrong reasons. It's funny because the event was run similarly to previous years where it was trouble free.

I was reading the banter on the event's Facebook page leading up to New Year's Eve. While there were some serious posts that need to be followed up, a lot of the posts were typical social media trolling trying to get ‘Likes'.

I'm speculating here, but I feel that the crackdown of security in neighbouring hotspots, such as Coromandel and Gisborne, had funnelled people into the free event at the Mount.

Then, at the Bay Dreams music festival held at ASB Baypark on 2 January, there was more than a hum in the air, with council receiving 72 noise complaints from as far away as Welcome Bay and the CBD.

It's fair to say that changes need to be made to both events. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The New Year's Eve event is a place for all ages to celebrate together and welcome in the New Year. It also keeps young minds entertained – whereas they would look to create their own entertainment if there was nothing provided and they were too young for the bars.

Summer is our chance to demonstrate to visitors that Tauranga is not the big retirement village that they have been led to believe.

Tauranga's challenge is encouraging the summer hum to stay around for the whole year, rather than cramming everything into the three weeks of the festive break.

Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 0276989548, and follow me atwww.facebook.com/a.younger.voice.

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