City put on ice for festival

Rotorua's Fire and Ice Winter Festival is making a return next month as the city embraces the cold and warms up everyone's spirits.

The ice rink is returning to the Village Green, there will be a Mid Winter Christmas theme at the Night Market and there will also be a light trail and open air movie.

The festival is being organised by Events & Venues to encourage people to do something different over the colder months.

"The idea is to get everyone in the city involved and out of the house," organiser Kylie Lang said.

"There's a lot of excitement around it. It's a time of year when there's not many events on the calendar. There's usually a bit of a lull and we want to fill that void."

Ms Lang said she was looking forward to Luminite, the lights trail through Government Gardens. The public can get involved with Luminite by making lanterns at the workshops on Tutanekai St. These workshops are over five weeks - all the lanterns made will be displayed at Luminite on July 26.

On Thursday, July 18, there will be a Mid-Winter Christmas at the Night Market where there will be specialty foods and a massive community Christmas table to sit at and enjoy the feast with entertainment. People can donate their old warm clothes and canned food to the community Christmas tree, which will be given to a local charity at the end of the night.

On Saturday July 20 there will be an outdoor screening of Ice Age 4 at the Village Green. Families can bring seats and watch the movie and there will be half-time entertainment and food available.

Ms Lang said she was most looking forward to Luminite, which starts at 6pm on July 26. The lights trail will weave through the Government Gardens and at 9pm there will be a fireworks and laser show.

"There are so many different things going on - people can walk around the Government Gardens, watch a shadow puppet show and have stiltwalkers and unicyclists go by.

"I can't wait to stand back and watch people enjoy it."