Street parade + market + weather = great celebration

December 5th, 2015
[by David Armstrong]

A combination of sunny summer evening weather, a well organised parade with lively floats, and a vibrant night market made last night's Starlight Parade one of the best in recent years.

The usual large number of watchers numbering around 3,000, along with 30-plus floats including several new and innovative ones, got the crowd in a truly festive mood. Smiles were the order of the evening.

What made this year's New World Starlight Parade even better was the post-parade entertainment and market in and around Decks Reserve. After the parade most of the crowd strolled the 100m to the reserve, and the 37 stall holders - mainly crafts and foods - did outstanding business for another hour or more.

Reportedly some food providers ran out early in the piece, having started serving well before the 7.00pm parade start.

Entertainers including magicians, drummers, buskers and a capella singers popped up around the car park, while the ferris wheel served a long queue of children waiting their turn.

While the market was run as a separate fundraiser by the Motueka Playcentre, Starlight Parade organiser Julie Jacobson (pictured right) was pleased with the way the two worked together. She said the night market should be a regular event throughout summer.

Julie was contracted by the event provider, Our Town Motueka, and managed to provide a relatively smooth-running parade at quite short notice this year.

As for the parade floats, the winning entries went to Parklands School for its recycled Christmas at the North Pole, The Warehouse for its snow globe, Alive Church for its nativity scene, Tasman Gymnastics for "a lot of tumblers and kids doing cartwheels", RSE workers for their singing, and Country Kids for its smokey and imaginative take on Snoopy's Christmas.

Here are a few photos taken at the night market. Facebook users can see dozens of excellent, colourful photos of the Starlight Parade and pre-parade entertainment by looking at the .

AJ Hickling entertains on his portable piano

Magic with a $10 note and a lemon

Motueka Brass in a different setting

Part of one row of the stalls

Many said there were more attending last night's market than the weekly Sunday market

The ferris wheel remained popular as dusk set in

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