1 · Refund and exchange policy
The short version. Tickets are sold for a specific festival on specific dates. We do not refund for a change of mind, but your rights under New Zealand consumer law always apply, and if we cancel the event you are protected.
If the festival is cancelled
You receive a full refund of everything you paid, tickets, signature pie tokens, vendor specials and the card service fee, to the card you paid from, without having to ask. We aim to process cancellation refunds within ten working days of announcing the cancellation.
If the festival is postponed
Your ticket stays valid for the new dates. If you cannot attend the new dates, you may request a refund of the ticket price within the window stated when the new dates are announced.
If we materially change the festival
If we make a major change to what was advertised, you may request a refund of the affected ticket. A change to the lineup, the program, individual vendors or the activities is not a major change, because the festival is the product, not any single act or stall.
Change of mind
Tickets are not refundable for change of mind or for being unable to attend. You may transfer your ticket to someone else at no charge.
Weather
This is an outdoor festival and it goes ahead in ordinary weather, rain or shine. If we cancel a day for safety, the cancellation refund applies to that day.
Signature pie tokens
Signature pie tokens, $7.50 each, are sold for use during the festival and are not refundable after purchase, except where the festival is cancelled. Unused tokens are not refunded after the event.
Duplicate or mistaken purchases, and lost tickets
If you are charged twice or clearly bought the wrong thing by mistake, contact us and we will put it right. Tickets can be re-sent from your order at any time, so a lost email is never a lost ticket.
Nothing in this policy limits your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986.
2 · Terms and conditions of sale and entry
These terms apply when you buy a ticket and when you enter the festival. By buying a ticket you agree to them on behalf of everyone in your party.
Tickets
Tickets are day-based for Friday 15, Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 January 2027. A single-day ticket admits one person on that day. A three-day pass admits one person on each day, one entry per day. Children under five enter free and still need a free ticket; everyone aged five and over needs a paid ticket. Each day of entry on a ticket bought by 10 November 2026 includes one courtesy drink, loaded onto the ticket QR and redeemable on site. A non alcoholic drink is always available. An alcoholic option is available only if a special licence is granted, and then only to guests aged eighteen and over with photo identification. The courtesy drink has no cash value and is not exchangeable.
Prices and fees
Prices are in New Zealand dollars and include GST. A card service fee is added at checkout, it covers what the bank charges us to take your payment, and it is shown before you pay. It is refunded in full if the festival is cancelled. Online purchases are card only and your tickets are emailed to you straight away.
Your ticket and entry
Each ticket has a unique QR code. Bring it on your phone or printed. We scan it at the gate and a ticket is used once per day, so do not share your QR code, the first scan is the one that gets in.
Entry conditions
Entry is subject to a search of bags on request. We may refuse entry to, or remove without refund, anyone who is intoxicated, behaves unsafely or threateningly, brings prohibited items, or breaches these terms. Prohibited items include your own alcohol, glass, weapons and anything illegal. Pets are not permitted on site, for food safety and crowd safety; certified disability assist dogs are always welcome under the Dog Control Act 1996.
Alcohol
Alcohol will be sold on site only if a special licence is granted, and only by the licensed operator appointed to hold it. Neither is confirmed yet. If alcohol is sold, it is sold to people aged eighteen and over, photo identification is required and we operate a responsible service of alcohol policy. You may not bring your own alcohol.
Health and safety
You must follow the directions of festival staff and security and any posted safety signage, and take reasonable care of yourself and others.
Resale and changes
Tickets may be transferred to someone for personal use but may not be resold for profit without our written permission. Details such as the program, the participating bakeries and the site layout may change, and we will publish material changes on the site. These terms are governed by New Zealand law.
3 · Privacy policy
This explains what personal information the festival collects, why, and your rights, under the Privacy Act 2020. Rimu and Harbour Limited, Wellington, New Zealand, is responsible for the information collected through the festival site and ticketing.
What we collect and why
When you buy a ticket we collect your name, your email address, and your order details, to process your order, send your tickets, support you, measure and improve our advertising, and meet our legal and tax obligations. Payment is processed by Stripe, so your full card number is handled by Stripe and is not stored by us. The People's Pie vote is recorded against your device, not your name.
Analytics and advertising
To understand which of our advertising works, our site reports events (like a page visit or a ticket purchase) to Meta Platforms, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, through its Conversions API. What is shared: technical details of your visit (your IP address, your browser's user agent, and if you arrived from a Facebook or Instagram ad, an identifier for that ad click), and for purchases a hashed, unreadable form of your email address, never the address itself. Meta processes this outside New Zealand under its own terms. We do not send your name in readable form and we never sell your information. If you would rather your purchase were not reported this way, email office@nzpiefest.co.nz before or after buying and we will exclude it.
Who we share it with
We use trusted service providers to run the festival, our payment processor Stripe, our database and hosting providers, our email provider, and Meta Platforms for advertising measurement as described above. They handle your information only to provide their service to us. We do not sell your personal information.
Where it is stored and how we protect it
Our providers may store information on servers outside New Zealand, to a standard comparable to New Zealand law. The festival database uses row-level security, and the keys that run payments and the database are held only on our servers, never in the public site.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and ask us to correct it, under the Privacy Act 2020. If you are not satisfied with how we handle your information you can contact us, and you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
4 · Photography and filming consent
The festival is photographed and filmed for promotion and for the festival's own records. By entering you consent to being photographed and filmed, and to that imagery being used by Rimu and Harbour to promote this and future festivals, without payment to you. Clear signs at the entrances remind people that filming is taking place.
If you would rather not feature in our marketing, speak to a staff member or photographer at the festival, or email us afterwards, and we will take reasonable steps to avoid or remove the relevant imagery from material we control. A parent or guardian is responsible for their children at the festival.