Last weekend’s inaugural Dominion Road Moon Festival was a giant step towards making Albert-Eden a more exciting and vibrant place.

“City Vision promised we’d make Albert-Eden an attractive place to do business and to live, work and play, and we’ve delivered,” says Local Board Chair Peter Haynes.

The three-day event at Potters Park saw between 25,000 and 30,000 people enjoy lantern shows, diverse cultural performances, children’s activities, workshops and stalls, riddle challenges, and, of course, dozens of food stalls.

“For me it’s a dream come true, something I’ve been working on for some years. What made it happen though was getting the Balmoral Chinese Business Association and the Dominion Road Business Association on board. They worked hard with Council staff and SkyKiwi and 150 volunteers to make it a really well organised event,” says Peter.

Lanterns light up the night at Albert-Eden’s inaugural Moon Festival

“A striking thing was the cultural richness of the programme, with Beijing opera, Kapa Haka, a highland pipe band, and performances from all over Asia and Latin America… This inclusivity is in keeping with the spirit of the Moon Festival and is a value much treasured by the Local Board.”

City Vision hopes to add the Moon Festival to the Local Board’s repertoire of major events, such as the Schools Multicultural Festival at Rocket Park and Carols at Potters, and the Brazil Day Festival and the Sandringham Spring festival that the Local Board sponsors. “Next year it will be bigger and better still,” Peter says.

“In addition, we also fund numerous smaller events throughout the year through our ‘events broker’,” says Peter. That’s in addition to the numerous community events that the Local Board supports through its community grants programme.

Further stories:

Radio New Zealand: ‘Auckland’s Moon Festival illuminates best of Asian culture‘.