A busy Dunedin thoroughfare was transformed into a ‘‘melting pot of a celebration’’ when an annual street festival returned at the weekend.
The South Dunedin Street Festival was held on Saturday, filling out a length of King Edward St with market stalls, performances and food trucks.
Festival director Nate Laurie said there had been a great effort by the community and festival crew to pull everything together, including managing about 100 vendors and three musical stages.
The festival had run since 2012 and Mr Laurie said it was a great event to facilitate a ‘‘playground of the community’’.
‘‘It’s a really great place where people can come and embrace their inner child, with all sorts of hobbies and community groups and traders.
‘‘Just all sorts of passions coming in and making this great big melting pot of a celebration.’’
Mr Laurie said the festival included a zero-waste system to manage refuse.
‘‘Every item of rubbish that gets produced here is our responsibility,’’ he said.
‘‘We collect everything and we measure it and audit it.’’
Last year’s festival produced 111kg of rubbish — through diversion efforts, just 8kg went to landfill.
‘‘Our goal is to reduce the amount of landfill that gets produced at events like these using different categories of waste that diverge to different destinations away from landfill.’’
‘‘It’s pretty phenomenal what we can do.’’
Kelly Gragg, of the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, ran a demonstration on blacksmithing, complete with a ‘‘small, portable anvil’’.
The festival was a good opportunity to raise awareness of the museum and forge classes it hosted, he said.
‘‘[Blacksmithing’s] a cool combination of engineering ... and artistry,’’ he said.
‘‘When things are working right and the metal’s moving, it’s actually quite relaxing.’’
Performances by Tahuna Normal Intermediate School’s marimba and bucket bands were well received — music teacher Anna Bowen said the bands operated throughout the school year and were popular with pupils.
