One of Tauranga's summer events is in jeopardy after Tauranga City Council pulled its funding in favour of the 150th commemoration of the Battle of Gate Pa.

Council yesterday decided to reject Summerfest's application for $43,000 of the $55,000 major events fund and instead give $32,000 to the Gate Pa organisers, who had applied for $50,000.

Summerfest is in jeopardy after council pulled its funding application.

The staff plan was to put $50,000 saved from the parks budget towards the Gate Pa commemoration, and give the $32,000 to Summerfest – a youth, no alcohol, music event planned for Waitangi Day in 2014.

It would then look for private backing for the NZ All Stars event planned for Baypark.

But councillors did an about turn instead rejecting the original Gate Pa application in favour of the $32,000 and stripping all funding for Summerfest, offering council assistance instead of cash.

The decision caused heated debate in council with councillor Tony Christiansen saying he didn't know if he could handle another three years of council negativity.

Current deputy mayor David Stewart said the events funding sub-committee failed to do its job. He asked why instead of stopping when its money ran out, the sub-committee instead sent the issue back to council.

Sub-committee chair Larry Baldock told council it is because Summerfest lost $17,000 last year and has since changed from being directly operated by Creative Tauranga to being run by a trust.

Larry said the issue came back to council as the applicants were unable to answer the questions at the sub-committee meeting two weeks ago, which were answered today by Dean Wearne from the Summerfest Trust.

David's reply that it was unethical and he opposed using the surplus from the parks budget received good support. Murray Guy moved to task TCC CEO Garry Poole with finding non-cash support for Summerfest.

Terry Molloy voted against providing non-cash assistance labelling it a guilty conscience vote for Summerfest.

Tony says the call for a different way of allocating event funding has been made every year and nothing's changed. Now, its election time and quite possibly there will be a new council which will put it off again, says Tony.

Speaking to SunLive afterwards, Dean from the Summerfest Trust says it could mean the end for the event at Blake Park that attracts crowds of more than 10,000.

He's not willing to run another event, run the risk of another loss without the council's full support. Last year's loss is being carried as personal liability by the trustees.

Dean says for the last three years a team of volunteers has worked hard to build up the family-friendly event for the good of the community, and after three years the event deserves some support from the council.

'I'm not impressed,” says Dean, saying he's speaking as an individual, not as a Summerfest trustee.

'I've got better things to do with my time in the community than spend it sitting here as a volunteer listening to that garbage while the other 20 people sitting in that room were sitting on some sort of paid time.

'The funds were there, and they decided not to fund it against some semantics around ‘where do we get the money from'.

'I'm dumfounded with it all. After two years of no support we've come to them now for support. There have been verbal suggestions that the council would support us and nothing's ever come of it.”

The Arts Festival, the Garden and Arts Festival, the Jazz Festival all cater for a far older demographic, says Dean, but Tauranga is not just a town of over 40s and over 50s.

'I've come to the end of my tether. Eight years on Acorn Foundation, time on school boards, time on surf clubs, dozens of reduced fees accounting audit services for community organisations and I have got better places to spend my time than in areas where the council can wield influence and take credit regardless of providing any support.”

Summerfest has never been council funded and Dean says Creative Tauranga itself is not totally council funded.

'It has to do other things to generate income and provide additional services to the creative community that isn't covered in the council funding.”