Gore Mayor Ben Bell is unfazed he did not get the chance to present an award at the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards.
Mr Bell was scheduled to present the Gore District Council’s Auaha Award at Saturday night’s gala evening.
He was waiting backstage to present the trophy, Mr Bell said.
‘‘They didn’t have the trophy there so by the time they figured out where the trophy was, it was already past my turn to present the award.’’
The winners of the award, Wellington East Girls’ College pupils Nan Walden, Eva Mokalai, Sylvie Hardie-Boys, Issy Taylor and Fendi Von Hoff were not there to collect their award.
‘‘That also added to the confusion,’’ Mr Bell said.
The awards committee put an apology on their facebook page ‘‘which was really nice of them’’.
‘‘I’m a big boy, mistakes happen.
‘‘It’s no big deal.’’
After the show Mr Bell was photographed with the models who paraded the garments.
Awards entries co- ordinator Bronnie Grant said the trophy had been accidentally given to someone else due to a change in the running order.
‘‘It was a mistake by us. It was nothing to do with Ben.’’
‘‘It was our one error for the evening [among] multiple other things that went really, really well.’’
The committee had publicly apologised to Mr Bell and were happy to own the mistake.
‘‘We do genuinely feel really bad.’’
