Festivities start at 7.30pm with the festival Art Exhibition opening at the Lakes District Museum, and will continue with dozens of music and dance, kids, arts, community, sports, comedy, and dinner events over the following nine days.
Organiser Deborah Husheer yesterday said there were only a few more details to finalise before festivities began.
"The forecast is looking really good for the street parade and the market on Saturday, which is the longest day and the highlight of the festival, so we are getting excited," Ms Husheer said.
New to the festival programme this year is an Arts on Tour NZ musical production, Songs My Mother Taught Me, about a 1970s youth determined to escape her sheltered and privileged upbringing by moving to Christchurch to study.
Also new to the event is an "old-fashioned" community picnic, which was to debut last year, but had been rained out.
Ms Husheer said that in addition to all the usual family entertainment, the picnic would feature a "trading post" for parents to bring home-grown fruit and vegetables, jams, preserves, and cakes for bartering.
Also there is the latest presentation from the Arrowtown Entertainers: a Dave Dustan-written, Kate Blackhurst-directed musical called Cribbies, about families who came on holiday in the area in the 1950s, for which attendees are encouraged to come dressed in '50s finery and "party like it's 1959".
Returning due to popular demand is the Art 2 Wear wearable arts show next Friday, which sold out within a week of tickets going on sale.
