This year's Queenstown Winter Festival tagline - ''Winter starts here'' - could not be more appropriate.
As visitors and residents rugged up yesterday to keep the cold at bay after a freezing week, winter festival organisers were hard at work making final preparations ahead of tonight's official opening of the 39th festival.
From 5.30pm tonight, thousands of people are expected to converge on downtown Queenstown to get the party started, and enjoy the on-stage entertainment at Earnslaw Park, which will include a performance by Dave Dobbyn, accompanied by 20 primary school pupils.
The opening is also scheduled to feature and a highly anticipated fireworks display over Queenstown Bay.
The festival manager, Lisa Buckingham, said it had taken a year to ensure everything was in place to welcome winter in style.
''The festival team [is] ready, Queenstown is ready and, surrounded by picture-perfect fresh snow, nature is more than ready to get this winter season officially under way.''
Ms Buckingham predicted the weather would clear today in time to allow the festival to start on schedule tonight.
''It's going to be really cold. I'd encourage people to rug up warm, but at this stage I think we're going to be OK.''
While the fireworks display could be affected if the wind came up, organisers would leave it until the last minute before making a call to cancel the display, she said.
Highlights tomorrow include the annual street parade, featuring floats from Queenstown businesses, community groups and sponsors. The paradewill start in the CBD at noon.
The ''Fright Night Movie and Pool Party'' at Alpine Aqualand in Queenstown would cater to teenagers, with Jaws set to screen at the pool from 7pm, while adults will be dressed to the nines to dance the night away at the sold-out Casino Royale Ball at the Queenstown Memorial Centre from 7pm.
On Sunday, the festival action will move to the waterfront, where the popular Day on the Bay begins at noon.
Included in the entertainment will be jet-sprints, a paddleboard race, the Splash and Dash, Undy 500 and the crowd-pleasing Birdman competition.
