Winter Nights Winter Lights Festival in action. Photo/Andrew Warner
Winter Nights Winter Lights Festival in action. Photo/Andrew Warner
Hundreds of people braved cold temperatures to enjoy the opening night of the city's free winter light celebration tonight.
Winter Nights Winter Lights on Tauranga's waterfront continues tomorrow and features interactive light installations, magical light projections onto a cascading wall of water, food stalls and more.
Presented by theTauranga City Council, the all-ages event attracted many families who had wrapped up warm to enjoy the light show.
Among those families were Jay Crennell-Brown and Hayley Crennell, who had brought her 4-year-old son Jack.
"It is a brilliant show," she said. "It gives the Singapore light show a run for its money."
The family had stumbled across the light show while on their way to the library and were having fun in the crowds waving coloured glow-sticks. It was the first time they had been to the light show.
Audiences were treated to exclusive light shows and an installation titled Extrude from Auckland-based artist Angus Muir Design.
Extrude's lighting installation includes 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 would run 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 some street food from some of the food trucks.
Tauranga City Council city events manager Gareth Wallis had been looking forward to the luminous winter celebration.
"It is so easy to curl up in front of the fire and hibernate in winter," he said. "But Tauranga's Winter Nights Winter Lights is designed to pull us out of our pyjamas, grab our woolly hats and embrace the colder months by coming together to celebrate."
The Tauranga City and Bay of Plenty Regional councils have teamed up to provide extended Bayhopper bus hours for the event. Visit www.baybus.co.nz for details.
Water screen shows were at 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm, 8pm, 8.30pm and 9pm. Event details are at www.mytauranga.co.nz/WNWL
