Hawke's Bay's iconic annual Harvest Hawke's Bay Wine Festival, now into its 15th year, is to benefit from a format makeover to ensure it continues to appeal to locals and is better positioned to attract wine lovers from other regions.

For 2010, the event will be centralised to one location, yet to be named, and the date will change from the traditional Waitangi Weekend timing to the last weekend in January, making next year's festival on Saturday 30 January.

With 36 wineries participating in 2009, the event is continually growing. Wineries will still stage their own individual activities on the Sunday of the weekend so there will still be the huge variety of entertainment available that weekend.

A number of wineries that do not have cellar door facilities will now be able to participate in the event making the event more inclusive for wineries and more expansive for wine lovers.

The change of date has been prompted by the past clashes with the Wellington Rugby Sevens and potential future clashes with the Mission Concert. It also coincides with Auckland's Anniversary weekend, and wine festival organisers will be promoting to both Wellington and Auckland audiences for 2010.

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