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The skies above Warkworth will be ablaze with spectacular lights and lasers on the night of Saturday, July 14 as one of the highlights of the first Mahurangi Winter Festival of Lights.
The high tech light show is being staged by Flying Pictures, a specialist company based in Auckland and Sydney that combines multi-coloured lasers with digital video, computer graphics and large scale projections for its displays.
The lasers will beam out across the Mahurangi River and Lucy Moore Park from 6.30pm onwards and will be free of charge, thanks to sponsorship from Gull Matakana.
Flying Pictures has been designing laser shows for more than 30 years and has lit up a range of events from Symphony Under The Stars in Auckland to the Vivid Festival of Light, Music & Ideas in Sydney.
The Warkworth event will also feature food trucks, stalls, and music. An ice skating rink and five tonnes of ‘snow’ from Leigh Fisheries will be open for winter play for three days.
The festival as a whole runs for three days over the middle weekend of the next school holidays, starting on Friday, July 13 with the Big Switch On and the Illuminate Winter gala dinner at Matakana Hall, featuring music, lights and 3-D projections from Warkworth company Darkroom.
Principal organiser Murray Chapman is hoping that shops, cafes, restaurants and homes throughout the Mahurangi district will all be decorated with lights throughout the weekend to create a festive atmosphere in the dark days of winter.
“At the end of the day, the goal is to have as many businesses, buildings and homes light themselves up for those three days,” he says. “Even if you’ve only got one string of fairy lights, put them up.”
He adds that it would be great if people coming along on the Saturday night could even light themselves up, with things like glow sticks and battery-powered fairy lights.
Other plans for the festival include lighting up Leigh Wharf, a River of Light artistic display by Kowhai Coast Lions at the Warkworth Museum Op Shop in Baxter Street, and St Leonard’s Anglican Church in Matakana will be illuminated inside and out, with a special service on Friday evening at 5pm.
Murray says the idea of the new festival is all about bringing local towns and villages together to brighten up winter and raise a few smiles, with everyone working together for the district.
“We still don’t have anything major happening in Snells Beach or Omaha, but I’m okay with that.
Hopefully, they can see how it looks in Warkworth and Matakana and join in next year,”
he says.
“It’s just the first year, and it will be small steps at the start, but we need people to buy into it for the sake of just having a lot of fun, and attracting people up here in the quiet months.”
Info: The Mahurangi Winter Festival of Lights on Facebook
