A lack of communication between promoters and residents is being blamed for the relocation of the McLaren Valley Music and Arts Festival from the Kaimai Range site to Auckland.

Festival organisers dropped a bombshell yesterday by announcing the highly-publicised event was being moved, claiming on-going negotiations with residents in the Mclaren Falls area had failed to resolve a number of outstanding issues.

The festival was due to be held at McLaren falls early next year. Photo: File.

Consequently, the event is being moving to an as-yet unidentified 'central Auckland location.”

The news comes just a month after promoter Paxton Talbot said the festival would be 'the centrepiece of something even bigger for the Bay of Plenty” and 'a seven-day event throughout the entire region.”

But it's come to nothing for the Bay.

This morning, a local resident told SunLive the festival promoters should have done more research 'before coming out with all guns blazing and selling tickets.”

'I know there were pieces of paper or consents going round for us to sign” said a local resident who wanted only to be known as Sophie.

'But I also know people were refusing to sign those consents because there had been no dialogue with the promoters and they had no idea how the festival and the traffic would impact on their community.”

She said they had not been briefed, and were completely in the dark despite a line-up being announced and tickets selling fast for the two-day event.

Sophie says festival organisers should have involved the entire Kaimai community. 'If they had got them on board and kept them informed, they would have had a better outcome,” she says. 'But the truth is we were only finding out about things through Facebook.”

She also identified further issues that had not been addressed. 'Traffic was one of them,” she says.

'The turn-off on State Highway 29 into McLaren Falls Road is dangerous enough without adding 10,000 people to the equation.

'We were never told how the festival traffic would impact and how it would be controlled.”

Another question was around home security, with residents querying why was the festival being held on weekdays.

However, despite these concerns, Sophie is disappointed. 'There were solutions,” she says. 'Did the festival have to move out of the Bay of Plenty? What about Baypark?”

Another local who has just returned from Wellington said he had noticed promotional flyers for the event in all of the capital's cafes.

'It sucks, doesn't it?” they said. 'They shouldn't be advertising and selling tickets before they have secured the location.”

In August, festival promoter Paxton Talbot told SunLive that 'if promoters were better business people, they wouldn't do festivals,” and admitted 'there are considerable risks”.

He also said: 'I have been burnt before and I don't want to see the people of Tauranga burnt or anyone else associated with this venture.”

At the time Talbot insisted he had the support of everyone, including local farmers and residents.

Now, however, some locals are saying there could have and should have been a completely different outcome.