Mums will have the opportunity to secure their place at one of the region's most iconic festivals, as a limited Mother's Day ticket offer opens for the Bay of Plenty Art and Garden Festival.

Festival director Marc Anderson says the bi-annual festival has been pegged as one of Tauranga's 'flagship” events.

'The festival has been going for 22 years, and it grows in strength every year.

'This is my first year as festival director so I'm pretty excited about what's happening and about what the team and the festival board can do together.

'We have a full quota of gardens for the Garden and Art Trail which stretches from Katikati to Te Puke and our festival site, which we have named Bloom in the Bay, is at the Tauranga Historic Village.”

The festival runs from November 15 – 18.

Marc says the festival's first release of tickets will be available for sale through a limited Mother's Day offer.

'While early bird tickets become available in July we have a special Mother's Day offer, which allows people to buy four-day ticket passes for $50 as opposed to $65.

'This pass entitles the purchaser to unlimited access to Bloom in the Bay as well as the Garden and art trail.”

He says the festival site will be packed full of art and flower displays, live entertainment and food and beverages.

'We've gone through a process to select really good artists and The Garden and Art Trail will feature a number of them positioned throughout the gardens.

'Their art will be available for sale and will also be on display at Bloom in the Bay as well.”

Marc says it's a popular event.

'By November last year we had pretty much all of our gardeners signed up. They put a lot of passion and effort into getting their gardens up to standard and we're really enthusiastic about their involvement.”

The limited Mother's Day ticket offer runs from April 28 – May 13 only.

Tickets can be purchased at the Baycourt Box Office 38 Durham St, Tauranga, or online at www.ticketek.co.nz