Inaugural festival of light to celebrate Matariki in Christchurch stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A series of large illuminated cubes will tell ancestral stories about the constellations at a new festival of light launching in Christchurch this month.
Live entertainment and food trucks will be in place in New Brighton Mall from 6pm. The fireworks, which will cost $30,000 plus GST, will also mark the end of the inaugural Tīrama Mai lighting event, which will feature a series of lighting installations, projections and illuminated artworks created by some of Canterbury’s best lighting artists. The Tīrama Mai lighting trails will be open between 6pm and 11pm from June 25 to July 10.
Stacy Squires/Stuff
The Christchurch Is Lit light festival was held in 2020, including at New Regent St, pictured. This year, the city will celebrate a new light festival, called Tīrama Mai, to coincide with Matariki.
The light festival replaced the popular Botanic D Lights event, which attracted 136,000 people when it was last held in 2018. Cokojic said Tīrama Mai – meaning to illuminate or bring light - would be the city’s first lighting event held specifically to coincide with Matariki. “We want it to grow to become a highly collaborative festival, with mana whenua guiding cultural elements and design.” The lighting trails would be open daily between 6pm and 11pm from June 25 to July 10. Installations would be set up around The Arts Centre, Christchurch Art Gallery, Worcester Blvd, Victoria Square, the Ōtākaro Avon River Precinct, New Regent St and New Brighton.