1News reports that the Marlborough Wine & Food Festival has been put on hold after nearly four decades, with organisers deciding that the substantial cost and resources required to stage it are no longer the best use of Wine Marlborough’s funds. The 2027 event had been scheduled for 13 February but tickets had not gone on sale, and Wine Marlborough says it will instead concentrate resources on activities that directly support growers and wine companies, particularly Marlborough’s international reputation and export market. The festival began in 1985, when the region had only four wine companies, and had become one of New Zealand’s best-known wine events.