FESTA is Christchurch‘s biannual celebration in the heart of the city. This Labour weekend, the festival will take over the town with large-scale architectural installations, workshops, talks, tours and more. In total, 27 venues across Christchurch will host events exploring the 2018 theme: Food and the City.

The weekend’s headlining event, FEASTA, will take place on Saturday 20 October and is “a public feast of architecture and food and features a bar of the future, artists who weave their food-related works into the celebration, a Little Asia food market, unique bamboo structures for feasting, imaginative installations, a food-packaging wearable art parade for children, music from The Big Band Festival, a speakers’ corner and demonstration station, activities, lots of great things to eat and drink, and much more,” organisers say.

The rest of the weekend, Friday 19 October to Monday 22 October, is packed full of events. FESTA organisers note, “a giant seedling sale and koha BBQ at Cultivate Urban Farm; food adventures on foot exploring mahinga kai sites as well as Christchurch’s drinking and dining past; journeys by bike to local food production sites; a neighbourhood-warming with pizza, butterflies and a treasure hunt for kids, made by kids; and a national symposium hosted by Simon Wilson featuring prominent voices working in food systems” as just a few of the things to look forward to.

FESTA is free to attend and open to the public; some events require resigstration. The video below gives more information about this year’s festival. See the full programme schedule at festa.org.nz.