Ōtepoti Garden Festival – Four Seasons of the South

Ōtepoti Garden Festival is a local initiative developed by its creator – Clinton Chambers. Clinton is the owner of Taste Nature Organics, Dunedin’s leading Organic Supermarket, Café, Apothecary and Integrative Health Clinic, and also the founder of the Taste Nature Social Enterprise. Ōtepoti Garden festival is supported and coordinated by the Taste Nature Social Enterprise and sponsord by Taste Nature Organics. www.tastenature.co.nz

The vision for Ōtepoti Garden Festival

Ōtepoti Garden Festival is about growing our connectedness with the land, alongside raising the profile of the City of Dunedin, its food and its people, through the botanical diversity and abundance of life found here. We have so much to celebrate, therefore we want to commemorate Dunedin through every season of the year.

Our vision is to:

• Build garden appreciation and engagement in Dunedin
• Celebrate our city’s garden heritage and the many Dunedin garden attractions
• Promote Dunedin as a visitor destination for key anchor events
• Establish new flagship events within the Dunedin annual event calendar, including the development of events during off-peak seasons.
• Spark advocacy and engagement for conservation, food resilience and wellbeing

We believe a Dunedin Garden Festival creates a lively, dynamic garden celebration to get people exploring the city’s public and private gardens, thereby enhancing Dunedin’s reputation as a seasonal gardening destination and a botanical centre of excellence.

Our Guiding Principles

To celebrate all aspects of gardening, the Ōtepoti Garden Festival’s five guiding principles are:

1. Celebrating flora and fauna
2. Environmental sustainability, conservation and food resilience
3. Health and Wellbeing
4. Education and knowledge sharing
5. Community connections