A 'Festival of Joy' for the Young
From skating on a magical outdoor ice skating rink to getting creative with mask making and lantern workshops, mini-festival-goers can get stuck into a feast of family activities at the American Express Queenstown Winter Festival (June 24 – 3 July).
Kids’ events are organized to take place outside of school hours and during Festival weekends, inviting youngsters to get involved with as many events as possible.
Starting with the American Express Opening Party and Fireworks (Friday 24 June) young festival goers can celebrate the start of winter in New Zealand’s own ‘slice of heaven’ as Jordan Luck and special music guests perform live on stage alongside a huge fireworks display at Earnslaw Park.
The next day (Saturday 25 June) the American Express Festival Street Parade brings colour and fun to the streets of Queenstown with a parade of floats created by individuals, businesses and community groups. The McDonald’s Teddy Bear’s Picnic follows the parade and young children are encouraged to bring their favourite cuddly toys to Earnslaw Park for the Ronald McDonald Magic Show and family fun including a bouncy castle, face painting and prize giveaways.
Creative young people can attend mask and lantern making workshops over the first weekend while More FM Day on the Bay (Sunday 26 June) and Saturday and Sunday evening Ice Hockey matches provide plenty of spectator action.
On Tuesday (28 June) the Air New Zealand Holidays Mardi Gras takes to Queenstown’s streets for an unmissable evening of decorative masks, lanterns, food stalls and live music.
The American Honey Night Ski & Coronet Concert provides winter fun for all the family starts on Friday (1 July) at 4pm while the puck drops at 7pm on Friday and Saturday nights for Southern Stampede vs Botany Swarm Ice Hockey matches. On Saturday (2 July) the Air New Zealand Holiday’s Mountain Mayhem has all sorts of mad cap family fun including a snow dig and musical chairs for the younger set while older kids can get involved in the suitcase race or Beach Flag race. Sunday (3 July) the action moves to The Remarkables for the Quiksilver Invitational Slopestyle where young freestylers can check out whether Kiwis really can fly.
Festival Director Simon Green welcomed all young locals and visitors to join in Queenstown’s official start to winter and said that a majority of programmed events were designed for families and children.
“A big percentage of our events are designed to appeal to young people and have been specially arranged so they can come along after school and plan their weekends to get involved with Festival,” he said.
“Queenstown Winter Festival is an annual event that’s essentially produced by the community for the community and the kids are very much part of that.”
The American Express Queenstown Winter Festival runs from June 24 – 3 July. To view the full programme go to www.winterfestival.co.nz or pick up a programme at information outlets throughout the region.
Tickets for Festival events can be bought from TicketDirect online at www.ticketdirect.co.nz, by phone 0800 224 224 (03 450 9110), or in person at the Queenstown Events Centre or Queenstown i-Site (corner of Shotover and Camp streets)*.