The story
Dunedin Midwinter Carnival in Dunedin
Founded in 1997 as a small grassroots gathering, the Dunedin Midwinter Carnival is a winter solstice lantern parade through the Octagon and past First Church, now drawing more than 20,000 people each June to see giant artist-made lanterns and stiltwalkers under the year's longest night.
The Dunedin Midwinter Carnival began in 1997 as, in its own organisers' words, literally just a handful of people gathering to mark the winter solstice, an occasion the modern carnival still describes as having roots closer to a pagan ritual than a conventional civic event.