Auckland Lantern Festival lights up Domain for first time

Thursday, 18 February 2016

The annual Chinese Lantern Festival is even bigger and better than before with its new venue - the Auckland Domain.

Damp conditions did not deter crowds from watching the Auckland Domain be lit up by more than 800 lanterns.

Hundreds of people turned up to celebrate the lantern-only night for the 17th annual Chinese Lantern festival, hosted for the first time in the Auckland Domain.

The festival had to grow, Lantern Festival producer Eric Ngan said, and the new venue had a lot more 'breathing space' for visitors to relax and enjoy.

The festival hosted at Albert Park last year was packed to the bring - forcing a big move in to the Auckland Domain.

He hoped it would bring back old visitors who were scared off by the large crowds at Albert Park and stopped attending.

The Auckland Lantern Festival is back and it is bigger and better than ever.

'There is literally, physically more room to enjoy it.'

Over the course of the festival, he said they would expect more than 200,000 people to walk the grounds.

Planning for the new venue took about nine months, he said, with a big part of that catering to the 50 conditions in the resource consent.

'There's a lot of challenges for a new venue, it's pretty much like a new festival, even though it's an old festival. It's a redesign, new layout and this park is more like a botanic garden than a park. There's historical issues and flora and fauna stuff that we've got to take care of and also iwi heritage sights around here as well.'

Although he said he had never exactly been sure, he estimated there would be more than 800 lanterns lighting up throughout the Domain.

Camels, polar bears and dinosaurs were lit up in lantern form - as well as traditional Chinese symbols, flowers and people.

'We've got 20 foot containers, 30 foot containers, full of lanterns and some years we take some out, leave some behind and every year we get new ones as well.'

The festival runs until Sunday 21 February and Ngan said you don't want to miss out.

The festival would also feature acrobatics, magic, martial arts demonstrations, food and craft stalls, and a fireworks finale.

'Take it easy, just stroll. Get a site map stroll around and discover the new venue. There's activity all around you.'

Even if the rain pours down, he said, the festival will go ahead rain or shine.

'This is the year of the monkey and it's a real bit of excitement coming to a new venue