Traffic lights halt popular Christmas parade in CBD
New regulations lead to cancellation
With Whanganui predicted to move directly into the “red light” setting when the new Covid Traffic Light regulations come into place on December 3, the city’s much-loved Mainstreet Christmas Parade has regrettably been cancelled this year.
Like event organisers across the country, Mainstreet Whanganui’s Tom Langford says the arrival of the Delta variant in Aotearoa had forced their team to reconsider plans for summer events.
“Realistically it was never going to be easy to safely run a Christmas Parade at the moment, even under level 2 conditions. But under the new traffic light system it would be virtually impossible — as that system mandates that any event with more than 100 people requires the use of vaccine passports, which in turn means we’d need a fenced-off events space with strict controls on entry.”
Based on the advice they’ve received, Tom says it also appears Whanganui will be moving directly into the “red light” setting — which makes it even more difficult, as the maximum number of people at events (without vaccine passports being enforced) drops to just 10 people.
Tom says Mainstreet is still considering options for an alternative event of sorts where kids could meet Santa safely under the new traffic light regulations — however they’re awaiting more clarity from the Government on what regulations will look like for smaller scale community events.
“For the most part, the regulations seem geared towards either largescale summer festivals or small-scale private events like weddings etc. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of guidance for non-ticketed community events that sit somewhere in between — and I think that’s something that events planners across the country are grappling with at the moment,” says Tom.
“We’d love to be able to put something on for the community, as we could all do with some Christmas cheer after such a challenging year — but for now we’ll have to wait and see what guidance the Government can provide us.”