The festival committee put significant though into choosing this theme and it was selected for several reasons.

Firstly it acknowledges 2015 as the centenary of the ANZAC, something the festival committee felt strongly about.

The committee also felt it was important to have a light hearted theme that would allow scope for humorous floats in the procession, without disrespecting the ANZAC name.

In recent years the festival procession has featured many amazing floats that have taken a lot of time and energy for local business and organisations to prepare and we wanted to encourage this to continue at the 2015 festival.

The festival committee also wanted a theme that could tie back to Henry Lawson; Henry travelled to New Zealand in the early 1890’s and again in the late 1890’s where he worked in Mangamaunu on the South Island at a Maori school.

For all of these reasons the theme ‘Our Kiwi Mates’ has been selected. 

The committee understands there is some confusion in the community over how this theme could be interpreted into ideas for a procession float.

The festival committee would like to encourage the community to interpret this theme in a respectful manner.

With this in mind the festival committee has published the following list that is sees as appropriate ways to interpret the ‘Our Kiwi Mates’ theme: land of the long white cloud, hobbits, Lord of the Rings, rugby, silver ferns, the kiwi bird, kiwi fruit, skiing and other extreme sports. 

The festival is hoping to announce the official festival guest in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to the festival facebook page where we will “dish up” the official guest’s name.