Dunedin’s Pacific community ready to welcome thousands for Moana Nui Festival

It will be the third time Dunedin will host the Moana Nui Festival, and organisers are excited to welcome thousands to celebrate Pacific culture in the deep south.

The Moana Nui festival, hosted by the Pacific Trust Otago, will bring together communities from around the Otago region to Dunedin. The event first ran in 2021, and 2022 - before taking a one year break.

Festival coordinator Ma’ole Faletolu says the festival will highlight the growing Pacific community in the region.

“Our Pacific community down here is growing, of course not as big as Auckland or Wellington but seeing the growth in the past couple years is pretty crazy.

“The growth in communities surrounding Dunedin like Invercargill, Oamaru, Timaru, they’re all growing and it’s pretty awesome to see our people everywhere.”

Faletolu says in the first festival there were about 4,000 attendees, and in the second, 7,000. He says this year they are expecting around 10,000 people.

In previous years Moana Nui Festival was held at the end of the year. But this time, the festival will be held at the end of March - which organizers say will attract a lot of students.

Faletolu promises the festival will give the South Island community a unique taste of Pacific culture.

“Our goal and objective is to bring the islands, bring home to everyone. So there will be a lot of food, arts and crafts, performances from all our communities.

“It’s a big celebration of who we are and our identity.”

The Moana Nui Festival will be held on Saturday 23rd March 2024, and will have villages representing Otago’s Cook Islands, Fiji, Maori, Niue, Tonga, Tuvalu and Wantok communities.

For more information, head to the Moana Nui Festival Facebook