Following the postponement of the Auckland Lantern Festival by one week to 4-7 March, free tickets for the new festival dates are now available at aucklandnz.com/lantern

Ticketing the festival is necessary for crowd and capacity management and contact tracing. The event will remain at the new waterfront venue of Captain Cook and Marsden wharves at Ports of Auckland.

The free festival tickets will be limited, and the public will need to choose a specific entry time when they book online. The public is urged to book tickets early to avoid disappointment

To ensure all ticketholders were able to attend the new dates of the festival, all tickets to the original festival dates (25-28 February) were cancelled.

Ticketholders were advised via Moshtix on Friday and had exclusive access over the weekend to rebook their tickets to the new festival dates, with many taking up the offer. Bookings were opened to the general public at 5pm on Monday 22 February.

Festivalgoers can enjoy hundreds of elaborate handmade Chinese lanterns on display, cultural song, music, and dance performances, retail and food stalls, craft workshops and demonstrations, and activations from sponsors and major event partner ASB.

A firework display from a barge in the harbour on the last night of the festival, 7 March at approximately 10pm, will be visible from numerous vantage points around Auckland. 

Ticketing will ensure crowds are spread over the full opening hours of the festival. While there are no time limits for attendance, organisers are respectfully asking the public to limit their time at the Festival to three hours so that other members of the community can enjoy the festival too.

While the festival footprint is smaller, the festival has extended opening hours over the weekend:

• Thursday/Friday from 5-10.30pm
• Saturday/Sunday from 11.30am-10.30pm

Thursday night – previously a quieter night without performance and stallholders – will now offer a full festival experience with food and entertainment.

• Book your free tickets at aucklandnz.com/lantern
• Stay up to date, follow the Auckland Lantern Festival Facebook event