The New Zealand IceFest is coming to Christchurch from September 26 to October 12 this year. The Biennial Antarctic Festival will take the city by storm, celebrating New Zealand’s unique relationship with Antarctica over the two-week school holiday period.
NZ IceFest 2014 will be located in a specifically designed Hub in the centre of Christchurch, fitted out with a quirky Antarctic vibe.
Host speaker events, exhibitions and interactive kids activities are just some of the highlights found in the Hub, before night rolls in and transforms it into an Antarctic bar with live music.
The headline exhibition of NZ IceFest 2014 will be the Antarctica Time Travel Exhibition, which simulates time travel journeys to 50 million years in the past all the way to generations of the future, through a series of zones made from interconnecting shipping containers.
The exhibition is an immersive and interactive experience that focuses on climate change and the important role Antarctica plays in our rapidly warming world.
NZ IceFest partner, Canterbury Museum, will also host Ice Lab: New Architecture and Science in Antarctica, which showcases some of the most progressive examples of modern architecture in Antarctica, including a number of research stations and a design for a future station, to be entirely made from compacted snow.
Christchurch will host Antarctic Art Trails, guiding people around the city to art galleries, cafes and outdoor spaces showcasing a series of visual art, while an Antarctic Film Festival program will feature a range of short films on the adventures and history of the region.
For those more airborne inclined, the Antarctic Air Day, held at Christchurch International Airport, will give guests a chance to go inside the plans that fly to Antarctica.
IceFest will also feature two NZ adventurer keynote speakers. Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald are renowned for TVNZ’s First Crossings, and being the first Kiwis to walk the 1200km journey to the South Pole unaided.
For more information about this event, visit www.nzicefest.co.nz
