The New Zealand International Science Festival is extremely pleased to announce that almost two years of work are about to pay off, with a gorgeous – and free – community event scheduled for Matariki weekend.

The Matariki Drone Light Show will take place at the University Oval at Logan Park on Saturday 29 June. The community is invited to bring picnics or browse the night market food trucks from 5.30 pm, with the ten-minute show starting at 6.30 pm.

The show will be the largest to date in Aotearoa and one of two marking the national holiday (the other is in Rotorua).

NZISF Director Jerome Cousins says, “It’s such a fantastic feeling to have this event actually happening. We’ve been working closely with Drone Sky Shows and the Civil Aviation Authority since we received MBIE funding in 2022. When we started the process, there hadn’t been a drone show in Aotearoa so it was new territory for all of us – the CAA actually had to create processes and forms from scratch for us which took some time. It’s so great to see that work paying off as drone shows start to pop up around the country.”

Schedule - Saturday 29 June

5.30 pm - 8 pm: night market (food trucks, live entertainment)

6.30 pm: Matariki Drone Light Show starts

­Sign up for information here­

About the show­

The 200-plus drones will tell a very local story in the sky, drawing on mātauraka Māori and environmental signals.

The artwork will be created by Kāi Tahu creative storytellers Kitty Brown and Kirsten Parkinson, cousins known to collaborate on many wild and wonderful projects and the founders of the bilingual publishing house Reo Pēpi. The show will be supported by original music by Alistair Fraser, one of Aotearoa/NZ’s expert performers of taoka pūoro.

Will there be kai?­

Yes!

To support the NZISF’s Matariki Drone Light Show, the Dunedin City Council has arranged a night market and live music.

The food trucks will be on Logan Park Drive by the path that runs along the side of the artificial turfs with the live performance stage nearby.

The Drone Light Show will be over the University Oval with a safety zone stretching from the Sargood Centre to Logan Park Drive to just beyond the Otago University RFC.

Stay informed!­

While the event is free with no booking required, please register on the NZISF website to receive updates – drone shows are very sensitive to weather, especially wind, so we want to be able to let our audience know if the plan has to change.

The event may be delayed by up to an hour depending on the weather at the time and, if necessary, there is a postponement date on Sunday 30 June.