Big event weekend coming up for Motueka

November 30th, 2013
[by David Armstrong]

Arguably Motueka's largest community event, the New World Motueka Starlight Parade, is set to entertain its thousands of participants again this coming Friday, December 6th.

The parade, which has been running for 13 years now, is again being organised by Motueka Events Charitable Trust, which is supported by Our Town Motueka.

Because Our Town Motueka no longer has a permanent employee, this year the detailed organisation of the Starlight Parade has been contracted out to a local committee led by Peter Garlick.

The parade is just the start of a busy weekend for the town, with the equally popular Motueka A&P Show running on Sunday December 8th. (See our earlier story.)

The time of the actual street parade has been brought forward this year to 7.00pm so that children waiting to see the final float carrying Santa Claus will not have to stay up so long. Shops will stay open until 7pm.

The evening's activities will begin around 5.30pm after stalls and entertainers are set up in Wallace Street, which will be closed to traffic from 4.30pm. At 6.00pm High Street will also be closed off and the activities for the next hour will spill along the CBD.

Community groups will have stalls in Wallace Street, providing information about themselves and some selling goods. Entertainers will include Kath Bee, Irie Vibes Reggae, Rob Bloor, a merry-go-round and Bouncy Castle.

The parade will again include about 40 floats plus stiltwalkers, street musicians and balloons, and hopefully the Origin Dance Crew, who were semifinalists in New Zealand's Got Talent this year.

View the reports and photos from the 2012 event, 2011 event, and 2010 event here.

Holiday shopping hours

Our Town Motueka has compiled a list of hours and days on which most Motueka shops will be open (as far as is known at this point) between December 1st and February 9th. You can download the list here.

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