Children and early learners from around Port Chalmers have been creating their own creatures to take part in a pre-recorded version of the annual street parade.
West Harbour Arts Charitable Trust residential artists Aroha Novak and Anya Sinclair led the creation of the creatures at Port Chalmers School this week.
Mrs Sinclair said there would be almost 150 handmade creatures and set pieces by the time they were finished.
The creations would "parade" down a conveyer belt made of wood and cardboard and "powered by elbow grease" around a set, showing off what the children had made.
The goal was to create an animated show of what lived on the forest floor, with mushrooms, spiders and whatever else the children came up with.
They were fortunate that one of the children’s parents had experience with filmmaking and offered to help create the video, she said.
Ms Novak said the parade would be different from usual, but had the potential to be really special.
As a video, a lot more people would be able to view it and some of the stores around town were interested in playing it in their shop windows, she said.
Mrs Sinclair said there was still a bit of work to do on the video, but it should be ready for public viewing online by the end of next week.
