Hair's the fun at Kidzone festival

Invercargill youngster Sacha Brown (6) has her hair decorated by Kidzone volunteer Lilly Pukehika (14) at the ILT Kidzone Festival, which finished at James Hargest College in Invercargill yesterday, after six days of events.

The event was packed with hundreds of activities of all kinds for kids.

Festival director Karen Witham said the event was a success and more than 10,000 tickets were sold.

"It is the family favourite event and we had an increase of people coming from outside the region. This is very rewarding."

It was Ms Witham's first year as festival director. She said she was blown away by the help she had received from the 300 volunteers and was already planning next year's festival.

"We are planning a big surprise. What I can guarantee is we will bring the fun from this year to the next event because this is what the festival is all about.