Celebrate the longest night with us!

Carnival Highlights

With around 500 lanterns, 100 performers and over a thousand people, the Carnival Procession around the Octagon is on track to deliver a magical evening of winter magic.

In keeping with the Carnival theme of ‘Journey’s of Discovery’ this year’s giant lanterns include a sailing ship, a double hulled ocean going waka and a hot air balloon. For the first time the Carnival will also present wearable lanterns performed in by stilt walkers.

Artistic Director, Juliet Novena Sorrel, said the costuming, performances and giant lanterns will be “stunning” and well worth the experience of being out in the longest night of the year.

“We have developed some great new costumes and we have some wonderful new performance groups involved this year including the Mosgiel Brass Band and the Onyx Militaires marching girls.”

A spectacular firework display will follow the procession as well as fire performance, music by local band Tahu & the Takahes and 20 food stalls.

Carnival likely to go ahead despite snow storm

Despite the deluge of rain and an upcoming snow storm it is likely the Carnival will go ahead on Saturday according to event organisers. Event manager, Paul Smith, said the forecast is predicting a break in the weather on Saturday and “the odd shower is not going to stop the Carnival!”

A final decision on whether to postpone the event will be made by midday on Saturday 22 June and posted to our website, our Facebook page and announced on 97.4 More FM. The postponement day is Sunday 23 June with the event taking place at the same time.

2013 Midwinter Carnival a 'Journey of Discovery'

This year's Midwinter Carnival event will be held on Saturday 22 June, the closest Saturday to the Winter Solstice. The theme for the 2013 event is 'Journeys of Discovery' and you can be sure there will be stunning new giant lanterns, entertaining performances and dazzling costumes - not to mention the fireworks, the wonderful food stalls, music and fire performance!

2013 Lantern Making Workshops Booked Out

Lantern making workshops for this years carnival are now full. You can book into next years waiting list on the Workshops page to get priority entry into next years workshops.

Join the Carnival Crew - Volunteers Needed

We are now recruiting volunteers to help work on the 2013 Midwinter Carnival event. We need over 80 volunteers to undertake a range of roles so don't hesitate to get involved. We couldn't do this event without the support of our volunteers!

Click on our Volunteer page for more info about the roles, volunteer meetings and our volunteer registration form.

Last year's event

The 2012 Dunedin Midwinter Carnival was held on Sunday 24 June, 5.30pm in the Octagon following a postponement due to wet weather on the day prior. For only the second time since 1997 the Midwinter Carnival was postponed due to poor weather.

The first time this happened was in 2007 and a heavy snow in Dunedin ruled out any attempt at holding the event. Since then we have been very lucky indeed - but despite the postponement the event was a real success! Read more here.