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The South Dunedin Street Festival will have a new look and a fresh, community-led direction for its next event.
Preparations are under way for the large-scale community event, set to be held on March 13, 2027, filling King Edward St from Macandrew Rd to Hillside Rd.
Run under the umbrella of the South Dunedin Community Network, the festival aims to provide local people with a fun day out that celebrates the people, creativity and diversity that makes South Dunedin special.
South Dunedin Street Festival co-ordinator Craig McGeady said the plan for the next festival was to keep growing the event, while also making it manageable for a largely volunteer team.
The search is on for a festival manager, who will lead a team of volunteer zone co-ordinator leads who each take responsibility for an area of the festival.
“Rather than a standard event structure, we are creating dedicated festival zones tied to specific facets of our local identity — ranging from active recreation and local history to youth arts and grassroots food culture,” Mr McGeady said.
Each zone lead will tailor their space to the theme, bringing in performers, artists and creators to help shape the spaces. There will be eight zones overall.
“The zone leaders will be able to bring in their own ideas and really take ownership of those spaces,” he said.
Mr McGeady said the festival, now in its 14th year, continued to grow in popularity and scale, which was why the move to zones would help with preparations.
“We will still have the many stalls and performances, which will be laid out in a way that will make the event a comfortable space for families to come and spend the day,” he said.
South Dunedin Community Network community engagement and operations manager Rose Dickie said the network had been the festival’s umbrella organisation for more than five years.
“We provide practical support, office space and storage for the festival team, and help out on the day,” she said.
“It is great to see the festival continuing to evolve in ways that make it even more accessible for the community and for all the amazing stall holders.”
Ms McGeady said the festival team would work to ensure that the event was easily accessible for people with limited mobility, as well as for families with prams.
“We envision there will be plenty of space for people to chill out and relax as well,” he said.
South Dunedin Community Library would take a prominent role in the festival, hosting events and most likely a repair station event.
“It is really wonderful to have that great library facility in King Edward St now, and also they have fantastic bathroom facilities for people to use,” he said.
The South Dunedin Street Festival will aim to be a 100% zero-waste event, and would be employing the Dish Library to help with that.
“It is very exciting to be getting to this stage in the preparations for next year’s festival,” Mr McGeady said.
“Once we get our new team in place, it will be full steam ahead.”
• For more information, visit the South Dunedin Street Festival website southdunedin.org.nz