Now called Summer Fun, after the Dunedin City Council decided to update the moniker of the 55-year-old event, it will include the 4th Otago Southland Battalion Group's celebration of service in the region, and Chinese New Year events from February 14.
Those events will run shoulder-to-shoulder with international cricket, as New Zealand takes on Bangladesh in a one-day game on February 8, and the Masters Games, which attracted more than 7000 competitors in 2008, from January 30.
Council events team leader Marilyn Anderson said the festival would begin on January 23 with the annual time-buster race, when runners will attempt to beat the 10am chimes of the Town Hall clock in a race round the Octagon.
On the same day, the Dunedin-to-Brighton veteran car rally would see pre-1919 vehicles head for the seaside town at 11am, after a viewing stop in the Octagon.
"In a way, it's the fast and the furious, really," Mrs Anderson said.
The Taieri A and P Society, celebrating its sesquicentennial, would have its show over two days from January 23.
The highlight would be a visit by the Topp Twins.
The 4th Otago Southland Battalion Group will hold a parade on February 27 in Dunedin, with between 30 and 40 military vehicles, as part of events celebrating military service as far back as the local militia units set up in the 1860s.
It would include a ball, a change-of-command parade, the unveiling of art work and a performance by the New Zealand Army Band.
Chinese New Year would involve a variety of events, including free entry and fireworks at the Chinese Garden on February 14.
Mrs Anderson said bookings for stalls at the Thieves Alley market day on February 13 were strong, and not far from being full.
