The sun slipped behind the hills, the wind dropped, and 1,000 lanterns were sent soaring into the night sky to light up winter in a very magical way in Cromwell on Saturday night (August 2).

The town’s now annual winter festival transformed Anderson Park Rose Garden into a wonderland, thanks to twinkling fairy lights, roll-their-sleeves-up and get-stuck-in volunteers, and locals and visitors willing to rug up and bring warm vibes to a cold night.

For 11-year-old Caitlin Sinclair, the preparation started early, as she painstakingly moulded a paper mache owl to perch atop a branch on her hat, entered in the 11-15 year old category of the evening’s Light Up Your Hat competition.

“I got second place. It was awesome,” she said.

Caitlin Sinclair, right, and Rose Weatherall with their place-getting light-up hat creations. Image: Jimmy Weatherall

Alongside parading onstage to show off her hat, Caitlin said what made the night special for her was “watching the lanterns with my friends and hanging out with them”.

Light-Up-Winter goers were entertained by melodic tunes from the Fine Thyme Belles - who sang some numbers at local rest homes before taking to the pop-up stage outside the NRG gym.

The Cromwell singing crew was followed by up-and-coming performers from Cromwell College, including band Offshore, who added some original beats to the mix in their two-set performance.

Bass player Indie Cameron said it felt like things especially gelled during their second stint on stage.

“We had more energy and we had some good crowd interaction…We played two of our originals - ‘Sonder’ and ‘Ecstasy’.”

Indie said the band, comprised of Ethan Fiebig on guitar, Logan Hunt on drums, and Mischa Thomlinson on vocals, was on the hunt for paid gigs and the chance to perform live at Light Up Winter helped them on that journey.

Cromwell College pupils perform at Light Up Winter in Cromwell. Image: The Central App

Event spokesperson Tanya Dennis said Light Up Winter was a grassroots event, and its success year on year was the result of a community vision and people willing to provide time, resources and energy to execute it.

“We’ve got the Menz Shed making props, we’ve got local artists painting them, we’ve got the schools providing magical fairytale elements…Even our principal sponsors Aotea Electric Cromwell and Daikin NZ - they don’t just financially back us, they’re all involved, they get their hands dirty, they come and spend their time pre-event, during the event and post-event helping us.”

The end result was something special for the town, she said.

“It’s a gold coin donation, it’s accessible to everybody. There are not a lot of events like that, to get us out together as a community and to welcome out of town visitors.”

Fire dancers put on a show at Cromwell’s winter gathering. Image: The Central App

One-thousand lanterns for release had sold out in advance of the event, and there was a waitlist of people who missed out desperate to take part.

The organising crew will consider upping the limit for next year’s event - their tenth - while considering health and safety requirements, Tanya said.

On Saturday night and Sunday morning, members of several Cromwell sports teams were charged with chasing down and collecting the fallen lanterns, which will be saved from landfill and fed to worms at Central Wormworx.

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