Auckland Lantern Festival

As one of Auckland's most popular summer events, the Auckland Lantern Festival brings Chinese New Year celebrations to a glowing finale with hundreds of beautiful lanterns, including brand new designs from China.

There will be performers from New Zealand and overseas, as well as crafts, fortune-telling, fireworks and martial arts displays.

We organise the Auckland Lantern Festival in partnership with the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

The ancient craft of lantern making

See award winning lantern artist Wang Chen-Wen and his wife, contemporary paper artist Tung Pi-E, demonstrate the ancient craft of lantern making every night of the festival.

Mr Chen-Wen is an internationally renowned bird artist who uses lantern making to promote environmental conservation and bird protection. In addition to birds, Mr Wang's lanterns feature auspicious symbols in Chinese culture such as dragons, phoenixes and peonies.

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Mongolian folk music

Don't miss the unique sounds of internationally acclaimed Hanggai folk band from China's Inner Mongolia.

The band blends traditional Mongolian folk music with contemporary influences and features a throat singer whose spine-tingling growls are sure to thrill the crowds. Throat singing or khoomei as it's known in Mongolia is a ancient chanting art dating back 5000 years or more.

The band will perform every night of the festival.

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Rolling Lantern folk dance

This year's Lantern Festival will feature an 800-year-old Rolling Lantern folk dance from south China that served to frighten off pirates in the old days.

The Rolling Lantern dance originated in Yuhang in south China's Zhejiang province, home to a thriving salt industry in ancient times. Fit young men showed off their physical prowess with the rolling lanterns, sending a stern message to pirates who came after the valuable salt.

The dance will be performed every night of the festival.

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Lanterns in all shapes and sizes

See Albert Park glow with the light of hundreds of lanterns.

Some take the form of animals, insects, flowers, or people, and others depict scenes from popular stories teaching filial piety and traditional values.

Updated February 2010