Big, bad wolf set for Midwinter offensive
THE glacial blues and whites of a freezing winter are starting to take over a Caversham warehouse as the lanterns come together for a Winter Tale.
A giant wolf that looked both big and bad — and is set to continue his endless battle of wits with Little Red Riding Hood — stood menacingly by one wall, although less alarming creatures like frogs and whales were also lounging about.
All are illuminated lanterns ready for Saturday’s 2018 Dunedin Midwinter Carnival.
Artistic director Hannah Johnston said lanterns were still being brought from a warehouse, where they were stored, to the carnival’s new warehouse in David St.
This year’s festival will feature giant snowflake lanterns that spin on poles.
The carnival procession, which will travel from First Church, down Moray Pl, up Stuart St and around the Octagon, before returning to First Church via Princes St, will feature more than 1000 people carrying hundreds of lanterns.
More than 100 costumed performers will bring to life classic fairy tale stories.
Carnival spokesman Paul Smith said the event, which would run from 5pm to 8.30pm, was beginning earlier and finishing later than previous years.
The carnival would again feature fireworks, after they were not used last year.
Fireworks in the Octagon were put on hold after a New Year’s Eve incident on January 1, 2017, in which a Dunedin man was seriously injured when he was struck in the right eye by what was believed to be burning fireworks fragments.
Mr Smith said the event would end with drumming, a fire performance and the fireworks display.