Queenstown Bike Festival hits the heights
Photos: Ben Lang
The ten-day Queenstown Bike Festival has wrapped up after a hugely successful year.
Last week, New Zealand became only the third country in the world to have a separate men’s and women’s bronze freeride mountain bike (FMB) event.
It ended with a bang this past weekend with McGazza Fest, and is set to return again in 2024 after a hugely positive response.
The jam-packed schedule boasted daily events from 20-29 January. There were many highlights, however the Slopestyle event on Wednesday was a great one.
Nine women competed in the event on Wednesday and with female mountain biking on the rise and a huge pool of talent in Queenstown, it makes sense that the competition would happen here.
Emmerson Wilken, one of the event organisers, was pretty stoked with how it all came together – especially the Slopestyle.
"The night overall was pretty awesome – we had the youth start off the day and myself and probably others, were blown away at the level of the youth," he says.
"We had a 15 and under category and they were doing some of the really big jumps that the adults were doing and tricking them. One of the kids actually pulled a backflip on the jumps there as well – that was absolutely amazing.
"We had four girls competing as well, in the junior side of things, so that was awesome. They weren’t included in the FMB, which is the world ranking side of things, but it was just nice to have them involved and give them a taster of what’s to come if they want to do the slopestyle thing."
The standards were high and everyone involved brought their A-game, he says.
Emmerson has received a lot of positive feedback with a common theme of how great the festival was and how good it is for Queenstown to have something like this. All the kids’ programmes on offer were really popular, too.
Photo: Ben Lang
Many of the events sold out or filled up – a kid came third in the 16” Pub Champ out at Cargo against adult riders. All the events were reliant on volunteer help, and the community certainly stepped up.
"The amount of volunteers that have stepped up to be part of it – we were there, marshals were there helping us set up and pack down. Just the whole community getting involved, whether being a spectator, being an athlete, everyone’s just jumped on board and embraced it.
"It’s quite fulfilling – you know, when you put in this much work, you always have that fear of almost being a bit of a failure before you start . All the feedback we’re getting, it’s been amazing and it’s been quite a cool special moment seeing it all come together, for sure."
You can stay up-to-date with next year’s Queenstown Bike Festival and review results at queenstownbikefestival.co.nz
