BDO Renwick Sports & Events Centre

The BDO Renwick Sports & Events Centre is a community-owned events venue at 8 Uxbridge Street in Renwick, Marlborough, a short drive west of Blenheim in the heart of the Wairau Valley wine country. The building sits on the council-owned recreation grounds at Renwick Domain and opened in November 2009. It carries naming rights from BDO.

The venue

The centre is both the home of sport in Renwick and a general-purpose function venue, and it takes on a broad mix of bookings — weddings, funerals, birthday parties, fitness classes and corporate meetings. Capacity is up to 250 delegates cocktail style.

Facilities include:

• Free Wi-Fi throughout
• Free on-site parking for 100 vehicles
• A commercial kitchen, which is also available for hire in its own right
• An operational bar
• Audiovisual equipment
• Furniture, glassware and cutlery
• Disabled access

Meetings and events

For MICE purposes, the combination of a 250-person capacity, in-house AV, a licensed bar and a commercial kitchen makes the centre workable for conferences, seminars, trade displays, awards dinners and product launches without a great deal of external hire. The generous free parking is a practical advantage for a venue drawing delegates from across Marlborough.

Catering is not tied to a single in-house operator in the way a hotel's would be; the commercial kitchen and bar allow flexible arrangements, and hire terms including bar staffing and cleaning should be confirmed with the centre directly.

There is no accommodation on site, so residential conferences would draw on Renwick's and Blenheim's lodgings. The wine-country location is a genuine asset for incentive and partner programmes, with cellar doors within easy reach.

Events and profile

The centre is the home of the Marlborough Wine & Food Festival, New Zealand's longest-running wine festival, staged annually at Renwick Domain on the second Saturday of February. That association gives the venue a level of large-scale event experience beyond what its size alone would suggest, and it is a sensible starting point when reviewing Marlborough venues for mid-sized conferences and functions.