New Zealand’s largest festival of Chinese culture, the Auckland Lantern Festival, is moving from its previous Albert Park location to Auckland Domain to accommodate the growing number of festival goers it attracts each year. 

All the elements of the festival that tens of thousands of festival goers love every year will be on offer from 18-21 February in a celebration of Chinese New Year and traditional and contemporary Chinese culture. 

There will be more than 800 lanterns, including new monkey lanterns to welcome the Year of the Monkey, local and international performers, Chinese food and crafts, martial arts displays, lantern-making and Diablo workshops, and the grand finale fireworks display. 

Room to grow at the Domain

Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) presents the festival in partnership with Asia New Zealand Foundation. ATEED General Manager Destination Vivien Bridgwater says the new location allows the festival to continue to grow. 

“The Auckland Domain is a spectacular location, and moving the festival there keeps this popular festival in the heart of Auckland, in a stunning heritage park setting, with excellent public transport links.

"We are excited that some of China’s top performers will be appearing at the first festival in the new location.” 

Stellar line-up of international stars

Second Hand Rose (Chinese: 二手玫瑰; pinyin: èrshǒu méiguī) is one of Beijing’s biggest alternative rock bands, headlining major music festivals in China and performing in Europe, America and Asia. Their music blends rock with traditional Chinese instruments. The New Yorker magazine describes the group’s music as ‘a tour of the raucous joy that’s fundamental to rock and roll’. 

The Shanghai Puppet Theatre is one of China’s best-known puppet troupes, winning many international awards. With the Lantern Festival part of the celebrations for the lunar Year of the Monkey, the troupe will be performing an excerpt from one of China’s most popular and best-loved stories, the Monkey King. 

The Guangdong Traditional Music Philharmonic trio uses traditional Chinese instruments to recreate some of southern China’s best loved pieces of music. 

The festival will also feature performers from the Guangzhou Acrobatic Arts Theatre, one of China’s largest acrobatic institutions and winner of many international awards. 

A celebration of Chinese culture 

Asia New Zealand Foundation chairman John Luxton says the visiting Chinese performers will give festival-goers a taste of centuries-old Chinese culture as well as the country’s contemporary music scene. 

“Thanks to the support of the Chinese Ministry of Culture and provincial Chinese governments, Aucklanders have been able to experience an amazing variety of art forms from China over the past 17 years. 

“The Lantern Festival also celebrates the numerous talents of Auckland’s Chinese communities.  

“The move to the bigger venue of the Auckland Domain demonstrates how much the festival has been embraced by the city since the first event back in 2000.” 

ATEED and Asia New Zealand Foundation acknowledge the sponsors and supporters of the Auckland Lantern Festival 2016: ASB, Chinese Ministry of Culture, Lotto New Zealand, Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, Air New Zealand, Barfoot & Thompson, COSCO (New Zealand) Ltd, China Travel Service, iHeartRadio, Chinese Herald, stuff.co.nz, NTEC Tertiary Group, The Better Drinks Company, The Hits, Love NZ and the Public Place Recycling Scheme, Auckland Transport, SkyCity.