Organisers have had an enthusiastic response from its lantern-making workshops this week, and the festival fires off with a lantern parade, led out by the Tauranga Samba Band, down Chadwick Rd to the Village Square.
The night will be bursting with entertainment including a glow show, laser shows, shadow puppet and the Highly Flammable Reflectrons, glow-in-the-dark circus performers on uni-cycles and hoola-hoops, as well as tethered hot air balloons. New performers include the Fuse Drummers, a school-age group burning beats with their glow in the dark sticks.
Several thousand people usually attend the event every year, coming from all over Tauranga to celebrate with the south-side suburb.