The Hastings Meatball Festival, first held in March this year, has been awarded the Best Food, Beverage or Lifestyle Event 2025 gong at the NZ Events Association Awards.
It is the second consecutive year a Hastings event has won the category in the annual industry awards, following on from Taste Hastings, which picked up the same title in 2024.
The festival was one of six finalists from around the country in its category, and was also a finalist in the NZ’s Favourite Event People’s Choice and Local Government Event of the Year categories.
Drawing on Hastings’ long-standing and unique relationship with the humble meatball, introduced nearly 50 years ago through the Dutch ‘bitterballen’, which first appeared at the Lilac Bakery, the festival was designed to honour this local legacy, while showcasing the creativity of Hastings’ hospitality scene and raising the profile of Heretaunga Hastings as a culinary destination.
Hastings Mayor, Sandra Hazlehurst said it was fantastic to have the event, which united the community through a shared love of the humble meatball, recognised.
“Inclusive, fresh, and fun, our meatball festival positioned Heretaunga Hastings as a rising culinary destination, and showcased what can be achieved with creativity, collaboration, and innovation.”
“The success of the inaugural event showed it helps drives tourism by attracting visitors from outside the district, and it’s building on Heretaunga Hastings’ reputation as a great place to visit, as well as highlighting to other national event managers its potential as a destination for other events,” she said.
As New Zealand’s first dedicated meatball event, the Hastings Meatball Festival quickly positioned itself on the national food calendar when it was held in March this year.
A key highlight that drew national attention was a collaboration between internationally renowned New Zealand chef Peter Gordon and students from the Eastern Institute of Technology’s Culinary School – an initiative that mirrored his work at Homeland, championing local ingredients and skill sharing with emerging chefs.
The event also welcomed New Zealand chef and restaurateur Ben Bayly, and included custom-designed meatball merchandise by iconic New Zealand artist and Hastings local, Dick Frizzell, released to coincide with his memoir, Hastings.
In total, 22 food vendors took part, serving 30 unique meatball creations, ranging from porky, saucy and spicy as well as gluten-free, vegetarian, and even a vegan “neatball”.
It attracted 5000 people from Hastings, the wider Hawke’s Bay and New Zealand, and 15,000 meatballs were sold in just three hours.
Among the activities were a pop-up bar featuring local Decibel wines and Brave Brewing craft beer, a Meatball Games Zone with activities like ‘Meatball Hole’, Giant Jenga, and Kubb, live music and a Rock FM activation zone adding further entertainment.
The second festival is in the planning, with the date to be announced in the coming weeks.
