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Auckland Diwali Festival on 14th and 15 Oct 2017 at Aotea Square
Auckland Diwali Festival, one of the biggest events of the year is what fills the City of Sails with culturally rich dance, music and especially lights. Diwali being the Indian festival of lights, is not just restricted to India. People around the globe celebrate this festival with joy and ready to bring a new light in their lives. Auckland is in line with some of the biggest cosmopolitan cities in the world that celebrate Diwali with a bash, including London, Dubai and Singapore among others.
The event mostly takes place on a weekend in mid-October every year in Aotea Square, Queens Street (Auckland, New Zealand). This year the festival dates are on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 October, from noon to 9pm at Aotea Square. That particular stretch of Queens Street is shut down for any vehicles during the Diwali weekend and is instead filled with stalls bringing you food, music, fun, and art. Therefore, figure out your way of commuting to the event as it will be very difficult to find parking during those two days. While there is mostly Indian food, there are still many stalls that sell delicious vegetarian cuisines from around the globe at reasonable prices. It starts from noon and goes on up until 9pm. In case you energetically finish visiting each and every stall on the street, there are live cultural dance and music performance going on throughout the day to entertain you.
Apart from food, there are stalls that sell some Indian ethnic items which you can display in your home and silently let people assume it’s a souvenir from your visit to India. There will also be stalls selling ethnic clothes and jewelry that you could flash on the second day of the Diwali festival or any other time. Now, my favourite stalls are the henna (Mehandi मेहन्दी) art ones where the skilled artists would ink your skin with natural henna for you to enjoy your brief but gorgeous henna tattoo. However, you might want to take a good look around before sitting down for the very first henna artist you see, since there are vast differences in prices and design choices.
It is strongly recommended that you visit both days of the event since it is pretty lit at all times. Finally, on the last night of the event there will be a majestic display of fireworks to end the heart-warming festival of lights and get you prepared for the next week of work starting Monday 🙂
Full festival program, maps, transport and parking details are available at Auckland Council event page.
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Check out Diwali Festivals across New Zealand. Click here
