News | 12 August 2016

Wellington SportsFest returns and gets support from the Hurricanes and Olympic Ambassadors

Returning for a second year Wellington City Council will host the opening ceremony of the annual Wellington SportsFest at the ASB Sports Centre in Kilbirnie at 9.15am Tuesday 16 August.

Group of children at SportsFest 2015.

The ceremony will include videos of support from the Hurricanes and Olympic Ambassadors, and the national anthem sung by participating children.

SportsFest is an action packed two-day multi-sports festival for Wellington’s future sport stars. The emphasis of the event is fun, friendship, and fair play. To encourage this theme amongst the participants, the Hurricanes have also created a special SportsFest handshake that has been sent out to schools prior to the event for the children to learn.

The purpose of SportsFest is to celebrate sport in Wellington and encourage future participation for youngsters all around the region. This is the second year for the event and there has been an incredible response from schools with almost all sports booking out. Over 320 teams from 47 schools are taking part across 11 sports. The schools are from throughout the Wellington region.

Wellington City Council’s Education Partnership Leader, Elspeth McMillan, is delighted to see the turn-out and support from schools around the region. “We have had an overwhelming response from Wellington schools and this really highlights the high level of participation in sport here in Wellington.”

“SportsFest is a unique event here in Wellington and it’s very exciting to see it run again for a second year,” she says.

SportsFest will run from 16-17 August with Years 5 and 6 competing on the first day and Years 7 and 8 competing on the second day.  The competitions will take the form of round robin tournaments concluding with a prize-giving. The event is free and is open to the public.