Georgia Lines performing at the Night Before Christmas concert, Bethlehem, 2018.
Georgia Lines performing at the Night Before Christmas concert, Bethlehem, 2018.
A funding shortfall and rising costs are among the reasons organisers have cancelled Tauranga’s popular A Night Before Christmas event.
They also said some potential backers were reluctant to sponsor a church’s celebration of Christmas.
The free event had been running for almost 30 years and featured Christmas carols, a fireworks display and entertainment. Past headliners included Georgia Lines and Ben Lummis, local Smokefreerockquest bands and kapa haka by Ngāti Hangarau and Ngāti Kahu.
It drew crowds of up to 17,000 at its peak but is taking a pause this year.
Organisers Craig and Michaela Vernall told the Bay of Plenty Times they did not want to charge admission as being free was a highlight of the event.
“Of course, we’re going to grieve a little – hopeful disappointment, that’s a good way of putting it,” Michaela Vernall said.
“I grieve for the community that they haven’t got this event now to come to. However, I’m sure that everybody understands, knowing that the cost of living is tough at the moment.
“We didn’t want to exclude anyone by putting a cost on it and for us it was very important.”
Bethlehem Baptist Church pastors Craig & Michaela Vernall started the Night Before Christmas event in 1996.
Michaela Vernall said she and her husband had begun organising the event at the beginning of the year but realised in August the necessary financing was not coming in.
“We had to make a call.”
Craig Vernall said the downturn in the economy in recent years meant there was no extra money floating around.
”So where people have been able to in the past, there’s just nothing there.”
Additionally, some businesses were reluctant to fund a church event, he said.
“Because we’re a church and we’re sponsoring, essentially, a celebration of Christmas, some of the agencies are reluctant to get in behind that, which has left us dependent upon businesses and individuals who have been comfortable with sponsoring that event,” Craig Vernall said.
“The majority of our support has come from local businesses which has been amazing.
“A lot of mom-and-pop type people have sponsored us over the years, with donations of $2000 to $5000.”
Michaela Vernall said the largest donation she could remember was $20,000, which came from a national organisation.
“They weren’t a huge organisation but they are nationwide. I spoke to the CEO this year, and he just goes ‘Michaela, we are really struggling this year’.”
The Vernells founded the concert when they began working as pastors of the Bethlehem Baptist Church in 1996.
Craig Vernall said the event started as “a crazy idea of just carols down at the river”. Although the event ballooned in size, it retained its community feel and large families could bring a blanket and a picnic basket, allowing families to celebrate Christmas “their way”.
“It’s just been fantastic to see families over the years come in and allow their children to run around the event, literally with mum’s phone number written on their arms, you know, if lost, please return to,” Craig Vernall said.
The event has been called off four other times in previous years, twice during the Covid-19 pandemic and twice because of weather.
Aleyna Martinez is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. She moved to the region in 2024 and has previously reported in Wairarapa and at Pacific Media Network.
