Wellington’s Courtenay Place to host New Year’s Eve street festival, city council confirms

Wellington bar owners have been given the green light to host a street festival to ring in the New Year.

Wellington City Council’s Regulatory Processes Committee has today unanimously voted in support of the proposal by a group of Courtenay Place business owners.

As a result, Courtenay Place will be closed to vehicles between Tory St and Cambridge Tce - as well as Blair and Allan Sts - from 6am on December 31 to 6am on January 1.

The event will include circus performances, live music stages, and venues “dressed up” expanding on to the street in an effort to “bring back the community spirit of Wellington”.

Jeremy Smith, who owns hospitality group Trinity and is also on the board of Hospitality NZ, said the area had “lost its mojo” in recent years and he hopes the party brings people back to the street.

Mayor Tory Whanau told the committee the council has to “pull every lever we can to help these businesses, especially in this economic struggle that we have and we know that our hospo industry has been hit really hard”.

”This is a great example of us needing to work together [...] this is a great story”, she said.

The last time a street festival was held in Courtenay Place was in 2017 for the Lions tour. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Smith previously told the Herald the proposal was put together by several hospitality providers who feel the area has lost its spark.

They believe a street festival would “make a statement” and hark back to the days when Wellington hosted events like the 2011 Rugby World Cup and Lord of the Rings film premiere.

He pointed to other popular events around the city such as CubaDupa, the Newtown Festival and the Wellington Marathon as examples of where streets have successfully been closed to vehicles to make way for people.

Courtenay Place was last closed off to vehicles to make way for partygoers during the 2017 Lions rugby tour.

The agenda for today’s meeting states the festival will be an alcohol-free event “with only existing licensed premises participating”.

Smith had earlier called on the council to work with venues on special liquor licences for the event. He wants to be able to “push the licences out to the edge of the pavement” to allow eating and drinking on the footpaths.

The Courtenay Place precinct is the centre of Wellington’s nightlife scene but has become tired and run down in recent years.

Smith said many factors are responsible for the area’s demise, and believes it’s a combination of economic challenges, people working from home, vacant earthquake-prone buildings and an increased number of emergency housing tenants and those experiencing homelessness in the area.

“You add all those bits up and none of it’s positive.”

However, Smith is confident things can be turned around to return Courtenay Place to its former glory.

“We have to work twice as hard to make sure that the energy is there and that the businesses are viable to recreate that vibrancy, we’re doing everything we can.”

In 2003, Courtenay Place was transformed into a red carpet for the world premiere of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Photo / Mark Mitchell

For the capital’s hospitality industry, which has been in economic turmoil in recent years, Smith said the festival “would be big” financially.

He has high hopes for the event, inspired by the success of Cuba St’s annual street festival CubaDupa, and thinks it has the potential to be a major drawcard that could inspire people to stick around who traditionally leave Wellington for the holidays.

“It might in future years be an attraction that people come to Wellington to be part of,” he said.

A New Year’s Eve street festival isn’t the only idea the business collective has brewing, with Smith also teasing other “activations”, such as an annual music festival to take place early next year.

Ethan Manera is a multimedia journalist based in Wellington. He joined NZME in 2023 and is interested in politics, local issues and the public service. Ethan is always on the lookout for a story and can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz or messaged on X (formerly Twitter) @ethanjmanera