Ding dong, it’s merrily on high for Wellington events company

Wednesday, 20 December 2023

Santa makes his way along Lambton Quay during a A Very Welly Christmas in 2022 (File photo).

In a case of it’s better the devil you know, one Wellington company has been handed close to $1.65 million to help organise the capital’s Christmas and New Year celebrations over the past three years.

Chameleon Events is the company behind many of Wellington’s big bang occasions, including the 2003 Lord of the Rings - Return of the King world premiere and the annual World of WearableArts — and more recently the controversial Courtenay Place road cone Xmas tree.

It was established in 1995 by former Wētā staffer Jamie Wilson and on its website the team are described as “the premier event management professionals.”

Chameleon has had a hand in the city’s seasonal festivities for years. Over the past three year— to December 31 this year— ratepayers will have coughed up $1,649,546 for its services, according to information released by the council under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

Contracts awarded to Chameleon by the council over that period included three Christmas and New Year events, a smaller Queen’s Jubilee Baton celebration and the production and blessing fees for the opening of the renovated St James Theatre.

Event costs included expenses for performers, crew, waste and traffic management, site logistics, equipment hire, technical equipment, theming and, where used, pyrotechnics.

This year’s Christmas and New Year’s eve entertainment is expected to come in at $710,000, with $420,000 of that paid out for “Christmas in the Quarters”, four family-focused events held at different locations around the city.

The last one at Waitangi Park went ahead in a truncated version on Sunday after bad weather saw the original Saturday event postponed.

Meanwhile New Year’s Eve revellers can look forward to an almost exact repeat of 2022’s NYE celebrations, except it will cost an extra $40,000. The merrymaking will again be held at Whairepo Lagoon with live music from covers band Zephyr, who also played last year.

And as with last year there’ll be a kids’ countdown and a short blast of fireworks at 9.30pm, followed by music from Orchestra Wellington up to the final countdown and another short fireworks display at midnight to welcome in 2024.

The forecast cost for that is $290,000, up from 2022’s $250,000. The event is now in its 10th iteration.

Costs relating to the 2021/22 financial year - $25,000 for New Year’s Eve and $289,477 for Christmas —reflected the impacts of Covid-19, the council said, with New Year’s fireworks cancelled and the planned A Very Welly Christmas party reduced to roaming performers only.

A Very Welly Christmas was back the following year however, with Chameleon paid $375,069 to organise 2022’s two days of festivities along a pedestrianised Lambton Quay.

In contrast the popular volunteer-run Lunar New Year Festival, which packs out the waterfront for two days each February has struggled to secure dedicated funding from the Council.

Long-time organisers pulled the pin on 20 years of celebrations in June after a request for $135,000 was turned down and they were instead offered 10% of the cost.

Council has since signed off $4000 for the festival, but Hong Kong based food giant Lee Kum Kee is now its principal sponsor

The Chinese New Year street parade makes its way along the waterfront in 2019 (File photo).

Another $16,000 has been awarded to the Chinese Senior Trust for an event in the Botanic Garden.

The 2024 festival is scheduled for February 17 and 18, and would include food stalls and cultural entertainment.

James Roberts, the council’s chief operating officer, said Chameleon was a preferred Council supplier of many years standing and the fees paid to Chameleon sat well under the level required to go to market or tender.

Roberts said the Council’s events team would be reviewing events and external partnerships once the 2024 Long-Term Plan had been adopted and budgets confirmed.

Councillor Ray Chung, who had pushed for Council to continue supporting the Lunar festival said he was all in favour of community events but there needed to be a fair division of funding. Currently council appeared to have its priorities wrong, and there needed to be a rethink on best value for money, he said.

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect funding for two events. Council has signed off $4000 for the 2024 Lunar New Year Festival and another $16,000 has been awarded to the Chinese Senior Trust for an event in the Botanic Garden. (Amended, Wednesday Dec 20, 6.04pm)