Midnight Madness, the long-running annual promotion in which Howick retailers stay open late into the evening, has been canned.
The Howick Village Association’s manager Jane Newbury said the HVA made the ‘difficult decision’ not to proceed with Midnight Madness 2020 following ‘in-depth discussions’ with police and results from its recent event survey.
“This decision was made to alleviate the major issue of teenage anti-social behaviour and drunkenness, experienced at our events in 2018 and 2019,” Newbury said.
Instead, HVA is creating a new Christmas event for the same scheduled date of Friday November 20.
“This event will be established to return to our original concept as a festive shopping promotion, first and foremost, and a safe place for families and our community, to enjoy,” she said.
“We will have a stage with entertainment, a children’s zone, Santa’s Grotto, food vendors, and of course, our iconic markets. The police will support our new time schedule and road closure from 5.30 pm to 9.30 pm.”
Picton Street and Moore Street will re-open to traffic from 9.30pm.
