The Cromwell community was in high spirits on Sunday, celebrating the 2022 Cromwell Street Party and Fireworks with workshops, high-flying aerialists, a nationally recognised local singer and lots of family fun — all at no charge.
Held in the town’s picturesque Heritage Precinct, the party was all the more special after last year’s event was cancelled due to Covid.
Parents and children tried their hand at oil painting, watercolours, photography and bead-making, taught by Creative Workshops.
Sixteen young performers aged from 8 to 15 and three adults from Queenstownbased Silk & Circus Aerialists flew high above the grassed area where audience members sat, all making the difficult manoeuvres look like child’s play.
Lara Laverdure, who owns Silk & Circus with her partner, Aaron Ferenci, said they teach aerial art as a discipline on lycra (aerial hoop), trapeze and aerial silks.
‘‘The moves require strength, flexibility, coordination, self-confidence and body-awareness,’’ she said, and her students grow in all those traits while also exercising and becoming more athletic.
Talented Cromwell singer Mischa Thomlinson performed a soulful vocal set, leaving first-time listeners in no doubt why the 12-year-old won a nationwide radio competition for singers last year.
In conjunction with the street party, the Cromwell Scout Group ran a haunted house as the first of the group’s fundraisers to send scouts to the 23rd Aotearoa New Zealand Scouts Jamboree at Mystery Creek, Hamilton, in December 2023.
Cromwell and Districts Promotion Group community relationship manager Kelly Cruickshank was happy with the crowd numbers and the family-friendly atmosphere, saying nobody reported any problems all evening.
‘‘It was a really good crowd and people were surprised they didn’t have to pay for the bouncy castle or face painting,’’ she said.
The night ended on yet another high note with a fireworks display over Lake Dunstan.
