Forced to take a break last year due to Covid-19, the Dunedin Midwinter Carnival is back this Saturday and bigger than ever, with an expanded entertainment programme, a night market, and a light projection display.
Up to 25,000 people are expected to attend the popular family event. About 1000 will walk in the Moonlit Garden-themed lantern parade at 6pm, alongside 100 performers and musicians.
Midwinter Carnival Trust chairman Paul Smith invited revellers to come along from 3pm to enjoy the Night Market and to stay later for musical entertainment into the night.
“This is an exciting development that builds on what we have done before,”
Mr Smith said.
Performance co-ordinator Rochelle Brophy and costume team Debbie Green and Annie Broadfoot have been hard at work for months at Dunedin Midwinter Carnival headquarters in Caversham, preparing mostly white costumes and props for dancers, tumblers and giant lantern teams.
"There are so many beautiful lanterns and costumes being created for our Moonlit Garden parade. It’s going to be wonderful," Ms Brophy said.
"We have all kinds of fabulous creatures, including snails, fireflies on roller skates, moths, bunnies, dancing leaves and flowers, and tumbling mice and frogs."
Also hard at work have been the giant lantern artists Xanthe Naylor, Ross Sinclair, Rohana Weaver, Filipa Fairy, Jakira Brophy, and Katrina Thomson, whose glowing creations will float above the parade, bringing the Moonlit Garden to life.
Among them will be a giant depiction of the moon, a praying mantis, moving flowers, a giant hare, and more, plus favourite lanterns from previous years.
The performance groups taking part in Saturday’s carnival parade are St Kilda Brass and Mosgiel Brass bands, Unfortunate Repercussions percussion group, bands from Logan Park High School and Kavanagh College, Eclipse Cheerleaders, Bennett School of Ballet and Jazz, dancers from Kavanagh, St Hilda’s Collegiate, Queens and Logan Park High Schools, stilt walkers, Dunedin Roller Derby skaters, Brophy Aerials dancers, and contortionists.
"The St Paul’s Cathedral choristers will also join us this year, singing from the cathedral steps as the lantern parade passes by," Brophy said.
"As always, it’s going to be a very special event for the whole community."
The Midwinter Carnival: A Moonlit Garden will be held on Saturday, 3pm-8.30pm.
If the weather is wet, the event will be postponed to Sunday.
