The free festive celebration, to be held this Saturday from 3pm-8pm at the band rotunda in Dunedin Botanic Garden, will feature an array of top-notch local performers along with games, stories, food trucks and a visit from the man in red himself, Santa.
Organised by the Dunedin City Council/Enterprise Dunedin Events team, the family-friendly Christmas in the Garden event will build on the success of last year’s night of festive favourites and family fun, which attracted an audience of 1500 people.
With the city’s annual Santa Parade set to take place the next day from 3pm in George St, it will be a bumper weekend of festive celebrations.
The Christmas in the Garden event will be led by MC Tahu Mackenzie, who will introduce the lineup of entertainers, which will include Rainbow Rosalind, Em and Me, Dubious Groove, and Doug Kamo’s DKCM Christmas All Stars, who will perform everything from Christmas classics to upbeat pop hits.
The DKCM Christmas Allstars includes some of Dunedin’s leading musical theatre and vocal performers, Sophie Whibley, Ben Hayward, Isla Kamo, Jack Archibald, Hayley Lyndom and Luke Butson, who are looking forward to capping off a busy year with some festival fun.
Butson, who has most recently been on stage with the Rock Tenors, said the Allstars would be putting a lot of effort into entertaining the crowd, doing high-energy renditions of pop songs and encouraging people to sing and dance along.
Because the band rotunda in the lower Dunedin Botanic Garden is small, a large stage area will be built out the front by Gravity Events to allow room for a five-piece band on stage, led by musical director Michael Grant, and to give the performers plenty of room to move around during energetic moments like medleys of Pink and Elton John songs.
Dancers from Dunedin’s Black and White Dance Studios will also join the performers on stage, adding to the fun.
"The show is going to be spectacular, and we can guarantee that everyone will know at least some of the songs, both children and adults, and then there are the Christmas songs, of course," he said.
"It’s a great feeling to look out at the audience and see people enjoying themselves, we’re looking forward to that."
A year 13 student at Trinity College and the youngest Allstars performer, 16 year-old Isla Kamo, is herself a regular in local musical theatre productions as a singer and dancer, most recently as part of the dance ensemble for Taieri Musical’s Jesus Christ Superstar.
It is a busy time for Isla, who has school shows coming up in the next couple of weeks following the Christmas in the Garden event.
"I’m really looking forward to all of it, I love performing," she said.
"I have grown up with the DKCM team, watching them perform and being on stage myself as well, it’s a great experience.
"And it is quite a privilege, not many 16 year-olds get to be part of something like this."
For more information on the event, visit the DCC website, and check the DCC facebook page in the event of wet weather for postponement information.
