The Auckland Lantern Festival is now in its ninth year. Photo / Martin Sykes
The skies cleared last night in time for fireworks to blast off from the Auckland Lantern Festival, marking the end of Chinese New Year celebrations in the city.
The improved weather provided relief for organisers after heavy rain on Saturday forced them to postpone the event.
Performers from
China, including Shaolin martial artists, gongfu tea makers, Shanghai drummers and a face-changing artist, were finally able to perform after spending Saturday night in their hotel rooms.
Several lanterns had also been damaged because of the strong winds and rain.
The festival, which is in its ninth year, is organised by the Asia New Zealand Foundation and attracts up to 200,000 people.
But the weekend's bad weather affected crowd numbers,, and only 1000 attended the opening on Friday.
Organisers said about 40,000 people showed up yesterday, which was an improvement on last year.
Foundation culture director Jennifer King said hundreds of lanterns were sourced during a visit to China last December.
It took five 40-foot containers to ship them here and lantern makers from Shanghai were brought in to help put them up.
She said Auckland's lantern festival is one of the largest outside China.
Traditionally, the lantern festival marks the end of the 15-day Chinese New Year celebrations, and is also regarded by some as the equivalent of Valentine's Day.
Last night officially marked the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations in Auckland.
"We are just happy that it was not a complete washout and that we did get one good festival night this year," said Asia New Zealand's deputy director Adele Mason.
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