Members of the EastPack rugby and volleyball teams after they claimed the titles in the two sports at the RSE Sports Day last year. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Iliesa Tora
Close to 500 workers from around the Bay of Plenty area will participate in the RSE Sports Festival in Tauranga on Saturday.
Event director Neil Alton said around 16 packhouses and orchard contractors will be represented at the event.
Alton said the event is a unique collaboration between the kiwifruit industry, local sporting groups including rugby, football, volleyball and touch rugby, and local sponsors to provide a day off the tools for hardworking RSE workers.
The Sports Festival was held for the first time in 2024 with 38 teams involved, representing 11 packhouses.
Alton said after resoundingly positive feedback in 2024, the RSE Sports Festival returns for its second year at the Blake Park, Mount Maunganui.
The Sports Festival concept grew out of an RSE workers' rugby game played in August 2023 between packhouses Seeka and Eastpack.
Alton said the game attracted 60 players from each company, but only 25 players could be accommodated in each team.
The game attracted a loud and large crowd, and from the day, those involved wondered what could be done to accommodate the high level of interest. Soon after, the Sports Festival concept was created.
The Sports Festival was held for the first time in 2024, with 38 teams involved, representing 11 packhouses.
Local Zespri government and community affairs manager Rachel Lynch said Zespri is proud to partner with Bay of Plenty Rugby for the RSE Sport Festival.
She said the event is a celebration of "another bumper harvest with some of the most important people in the kiwifruit industry".
"The work carried out across Bay of Plenty orchards this season has been monumental, with more than 200 million trays of New Zealand fruit picked, packed and heading offshore this season," Lynch said.
"It wouldn't be possible without our RSE workforce and this festival is a way to thank and publicly acknowledge the RSE community and the important work they do."
Organising committee member and Bay of Plenty Rugby manager Ati Aaifou-Olive said the union is always looking at ways to connect with their community and the RSE Sports Festival is a new way in which sport can give RSE workers a positive experience while in New Zealand.
"We are really pleased to have the support of WaiBOP Football and BOP Volleyball who also want to engage with different communities to grow their sports," he said.
"We are also really grateful that Zespri, Health & Travel Insurance and RSE Travel have joined us as sponsors of the event.
"The focus of the day is all about "Connections, Fun, Culture and Family". We are very lucky to have the RSE workers supporting the Kiwifruit industry and its going to be an awesome day to celebrate their hard work and contribution through this event."
The day's program will roll off with the opening ceremony at 9am, before teams get into their different sports events.
Twenty six teams are in football, divided into four pools, while volleyball will have 16 teams, with four teams in each pool.
There are five teams in sevens rugby and five teams also in touch rugby, with both sports to have round-robin competition.
Eastpack won the rugby 7s and Volleyball in 2024 while Trinity Lands won the football title.
