Organised by historian Helen Stead as part of the town's Victorian heritage celebrations, it will start at 7.45pm by the Wonderland statue in the Oamaru Public Gardens with a reading from Peter Pan and young children dancing around the statue.
Participants will then move to various parts of the gardens where there will be dancing or music, including Lynley Caldwell's choir singing in the New Zealand garden and a didgeridoo playing in the Australian section.
The promenade will then head to the Harbourside railway station in Itchen St where people will catch the train to the harbour.
At the harbour, stories will be read about shipwrecks pertaining to the area and the arrival of Elderslie to Sumpter Wharf.
Oamaru's link with the fateful last trip of explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott will be marked with a piece by dancer and choreographer Bronwyn Judge, who spent a week in the Antarctic in 2001.
Early on February 10, 1913, Oamaru Harbour was secretly visited by Scott's ship, Terra Nova, bearing news of the death of Scott and his companions during their expedition to the South Pole.
The train will return to the historic precinct, with events being held around the Criterion Hotel and Smiths Grain Store and finishing with different styles of dancing in the Scottish Hall.
Living history was an "amazing" way to bring theatre and the arts together with the area's history, Mrs Judge said.
There would be a full moon and the promenade was expected to finish about 11pm.
