SummerTimes Festival

Councils in summer swing - CHCH City Council

It’s summer – there are festivals to promote, barbecues to fire up, clowns to hire, port-a-loos to install. Chances are, if it’s free, your council has organised it. It’s as much a part of the Kiwi summer as jandals and floppy hats.

Christchurch’s most popular festival of the year, SummerTimes, kicked off 24 years ago, and it gets better every year. Christchurch City Council’s Events team loves getting people out and about to enjoy free events and activities.

The simple philosophy is that people feel good when they can get together and enjoy the many natural and man-made facilities the city has to offer. The council has developed the festival over the years to include hugely diverse interests, tastes and cultures.

The festival is closely aligned with several of the city’s Community Outcomes, specifically that:

• “Our diversity is seen, heard, valued and celebrated.”
• “We live long, healthy and happy lives.”
• “We value leisure time and recognise that the arts, sports and other recreational activities contribute to our economy, identity, health and well-being.”

Christchurch has many superb open spaces, and most are owned and managed by the council on behalf of the community. As community assets, the council makes the most of them for SummerTimes events.

The 2007 programme, for example, included:

• The New Year’s Eve party in Cathedral Square.
• Classical Sparks – Kiwi-flavoured entertainment for Waitangi Day Eve in Hagley Park featuring Dave Dobbyn and the Deborah Wai Kapohe.
• Starry Nights, Christchurch’s own version of Broadway in Hagley Park – a colourful trip down memory lane with many No 1 hits performed live on the big stage.
• A night out camping with the kids at one of the city’s parks.
• Learning to fly a kit at New Brighton Beach.
• The annual Teddy Bears’ Picnic in Hagley Park.
• Summer Theatre at the Botanic Gardens, where you can sit on the Daffodil Lawn and have a picnic.
• Sunday Bandstand – a regular Sunday event with brass and pipe bands playing at various venues in the city and suburbs.
• Farewell to the Godwits at South Shore Spit Reserve, marking the end of summer with a goodbye to the birds as they head for their breeding grounds 11,000km away in Alaska.

Events team members work closely with sponsors to not only make events spectacular, but also to bring them to the biggest number of people possible.

The SummerTimes festival also integrates smaller suburban events that are run through the community recreation team.

Who is involved: Event production team event development marketing and communications