The Cromwell Cherry Festival celebrates the cherries of Central Otago — widely regarded as the finest in New Zealand and among the best in the world — in a summer festival that brings the community together at the peak of the cherry harvest each January. Cromwell's unique climate, with its hot dry summers and cold winters, creates ideal conditions for growing cherries of exceptional sweetness, size and flavour, and the festival is both a celebration of this produce and a community gathering that reflects the warm character of the town.
The festival includes cherry-related competitions, stalls selling fresh cherries and cherry products, entertainment, markets and the kind of community spirit that makes small-town New Zealand events so distinctive and enjoyable. For cherry lovers — and New Zealand cherries make converts of almost everyone who tries them — it is a chance to taste the fruit at its absolute peak, freshly picked from the surrounding orchards and sold with the pride of people who know they are producing something special.
For visitors to Central Otago in January, the Cromwell Cherry Festival adds a seasonal celebration to a region that already rewards exploration with its wine, its cycling, its history and its extraordinary landscape. A box of Cromwell cherries picked up at the festival is one of the finest souvenirs you can take away from the South Island.