Winter light festival 'a success'

About 10,000 people enjoyed the city's free winter light celebration on the waterfront at the weekend.

Winter Nights Winter Lights on Tauranga's waterfront featured interactive light installations, magical light projections on to a cascading wall of water, food stalls and more.

Tauranga City Council's city events team manager Gareth Wallis said the all-ages event attracted bigger numbers than last year's festival.

"There were about 10,000 people over the two nights, with Saturday busier than Friday night," he said.

"In the first instance, the weather could not have been any better, which meant it was very popular."

Audiences were treated to exclusive light shows and an installation titled Extrude from Auckland-based artist Angus Muir Design.

Extrude's lighting installation included 16 translucent posts standing 10m high. It was illuminated on all sides and responded to those who came close.

Laser shows on the cascading wall of water ran every half hour from 6pm to 9.30pm throughout both nights.

The Little Big Markets' Winter Bites food stalls also proved popular, with many people tucking into street food from some of the food trucks.

"It was a wonderful success and we are pleased with how it went," said Mr Wallis. "It is definitely something we will look at doing again next year because of its popularity."