Street parade ahead of council poll

As this Pasifika group did for Whangarei City's 50th anniversary party last year, many folk are expected to liven up next week's Colour our City parade. Photo / File

The same people who are pushing the Hundertwasser concept around Whangarei are also planning a street parade but please don't mention the 'H' word.

Prosper Northland - of the Austrian-Kiwi architect/artist's resurrected plan for an unused Town Basin building - has organised the "Colour Our City" street parade as a way of encouraging people to come out and enjoy the place.

Spokesman Barry Trass said the idea to celebrate Whangarei by inviting as many people as possible to play up in the streets (in the best possible way) has nothing to do with the group's Hundertwasser project.

"We just wanted to have a parade that celebrated living here and gave people a chance to express that," Mr Trass said.

"We're hoping it will be [an] annual thing. We're calling on people to be flamboyant, come along [with] their acts and performances, dress as colourfully as they can, dress up the baby buggy or the mobility scooter, and join in."

Just as the parade is not technically a Hundertwasser promotion, nor is it a Whangarei District Council one - despite it feeling a little like the "love-it-here" campaign fronted by the civic sector.

Prosper Northland sees itself as an initiator and backer of schemes that help bring vibrancy and interest to the region, Mr Trass said.

The trust supported and hoped to get behind the proposed Hihiaua Maori Cultural Centre and other projects that promoted the arts and performance, he said.

Schools, kapa haka and other culture groups, clubs, jugglers, dancers and musicians are expected to be in the parade, with as many individuals who want to take part from the Laurie Hall Park to the Town Basin on Saturday, May 9.

Ironically, less than a week after the "Colour our City" feel-good party, the controversial referendum asking the public to choose between the Hundertwasser Wairau Maori Arts Centre, the Harbourside multi-use facility or bulldozing the building will start.

That postal voting referendum will run from Thursday, May 14 to Thursday, June 5. Electoral officer Dale Ofsoske, from Independent Election Services , said a referendum is different to other elections which ban campaigning during a designated voting period. While there can be no public funding or council endorsement for an options during the referendum period, any council member can express their opinion.