Preparations are under way for the 13th Golden Oldies World Netball Festival being held in Queenstown next month, with a resource consent application lodged for the official opening ceremony.
The event, being held from November 1 to November 7, has attracted 52 teams and follows on from the successful World Golden Oldies Cricket Festival held in Queenstown in 2007.
The Wakatipu Netball Charitable Trust has lodged the application for the one-off opening ceremony, to be held on November 1, encompassing the Queenstown Gardens and Earnslaw Park.
The ceremony will include the 52 teams, 30 volunteers and 20 "VIPs", totalling 570 people.
The Golden Oldies Netball Festivals have been designed to "let the love of netball take you places", with previous events being held in Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Christchurch, the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Gold Coast, Singapore, Vancouver, Honolulu and Perth.
Queenstown's festival would continue the philosophy of "fun, friendship and fraternity", the application said.
The trust has applied for consent to hold the opening ceremony in Earnslaw Park, with consent also sought for use of the Queenstown Gardens.
Teams will be collected from their hotels and transported to the Queenstown Gardens at 4.45pm on November 1, where they will assemble for the Parade of Nations, which will begin at 5.30pm.
The teams, led by flag bearers, will walk down the footpath from the Queenstown Gardens, past the band rotunda, along Marine Pde to Earnslaw Park.
They would parade in front of a stage before assembling in the "holding area".
The resource consent application said teams would be welcomed by a kapa haka group, followed by a speech by Queenstown Lakes Mayor Clive Geddes, Air New Zealand Holidays events manager Keith Robinson and festival director Corina Ngatuere.
Brenda Crawford, of XSNRG, will read the players' oath before the festival is officially opened by Southern Sting netball coach and festival ambassador Robyn Broughton.
Queenstown secondary school pupil Emily Burns will bring the opening ceremony to a close by singing the New Zealand National Anthem.
