Tauranga is set for a busy Kings Birthday weekend, with free waterfront lights, roaming performers and two major events drawing crowds to the city and Mercury Baypark from Friday through Monday.
At the Tauranga waterfront, POP! Glow, Go! will run from 5pm to 8pm each evening, offering a free, family-friendly programme built around two large-scale light installations, fire performances, neon face painting, a photo booth, luminous roaming characters and Have a Glow Circus. Live music and roaming entertainment will also move across the city centre over the long weekend, with the Tauranga Samba Band on The Strand on Friday, Beat St Drummers in Red Square on Saturday, local artist Sophie Maude at Masonic Park on Sunday and Fuse Drummers on Wharf Street on Monday.
Genevieve Whitson said people should take the chance to stay in town and spend time in the centre while the event is on. She urged visitors to make the most of the city centre’s dining options and local eateries while they take in the fun, and reminded them that all council parking buildings and on-street parking in the city centre are free after 5pm on weekdays, as well as all day on weekends and public holidays.
The scale of the weekend becomes clearer at Mercury Baypark, where Project Hip Hop is returning with 1,300 young dancers from across Aotearoa and 140 crews, up 36 per cent from last year. For the first time, the competition will also include international crews, with Bombelêla from Brazil joining three crews from Australia. Sarah Martin said the event marks the beginning of an exciting pathway for greater international participation, while creating opportunities for young dancers to connect, share experiences, and celebrate Hip Hop across cultures.
Project Hip Hop will also run two free workshops on Monday for emerging choreographers and young creatives in collaboration with The Wave. They are open to the public, all ages and all competing dancers at this year’s championship. Martin said the workshops are designed to create space for up-and-coming tutors to teach, connect and share their passion with dancers from across Aotearoa and overseas, helping grow the future of street dance culture.
The same venue will also host the Mid North U16 and U18 Regional Qualifying Basketball Tournament, run by Tauranga City Basketball and now in its 10th year over Kings Birthday weekend. Forty representative teams from across the Waikato, Thames Valley, King Country and Bay of Plenty will compete for qualification to the National Championships in what is described as a key event in the basketball pathway. Bay Venues Head of Events Amanda West said Mercury Baypark will be a major hub of activity across the weekend, and called it a chance to see the energy and creativity of Project Hip Hop alongside the basketball talent on court.
Project Hip Hop has delivered more than 4,000 visitor nights and over $600,000 in visitor spend in Tauranga before, and this year’s return gives the city another shot at the same kind of lift. Between the waterfront lights, the hip hop finals and the long-running basketball tournament, Kings Birthday weekend is shaping up as one of the city’s busiest stretches of the year.
