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What: Ignite Freshwater Swim Fest
Where: Lake Pupuke / Pupukemoana, Auckland
When: February 13–14, 2027
Scott Rice is back on Swim Chats this month to talk about a brand-new swim event coming next summer: the Ignite Freshwater Swim Fest! It will be a fun weekend for the whole family in February, offering a range of swim distances to suit all abilities (250m to 10km), live music, food stalls, the first NZ Doggy Swim Champs (a 100m swim with your pawsome pal), a 4x500m relay, three national swim championships, and much more.
The event's charity partner is Live Ocean and the swim 'ambassadors' who will be attending include gold medallist Lewis Clareburt, ultramarathon swimmer Jono Ridler, Auramove's Laura Quilter, TVNZ's Wendy Petrie, and former All Black Ian Jones.
Scott is passionate about running safe, inclusive, and feel-good events that, as he puts it, are a "celebration of swimming". He founded the NZ Ocean Swim Series, and now runs the Z Manu World Champs and Ocean Swim Fiji.
Learn more about the swim festival and get your earlybird entries via the Ignite Freshwater Swim Fest website.
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"Introducing NZ's new freshwater swim festival" is an episode of Swim Chats. Runtime 28 min. Published September 20, 2026. Hit play above to stream it here, or open the free Spot Sports app for background play and offline downloads.