Matariki whānau night (kai, stars and stalls)

Outdoor: weather matters

A winter community evening around Matariki with pre-sold hāngī or soup, kapa haka, a small market and telescopes, raising money through kai sales.

Typically raises

$1,200

$300–4,000 per eventest.

About $48 per organiser hour

Is it right for us?

Money: $500–2,000
Work: Weeks, part-time
Helpers: 7–15 people
Lead time: 1–2 months
Red tape: Light

Fairly common: increasingly common since Matariki became a holiday

People: 10-20 incl. a hāngī or kitchen crew, stall helpers and a host (estimate)
Organiser time: 20-30 hours (estimate)
Lead time: 6-8 weeks; Māpua closed hāngī orders about two weeks before the night (Māpua School)
Up-front cost: $500. Hāngī meat and vegetables are paid for by pre-orders; market stock and lighting extra (estimate).
Risk: Low if every hāngī is pre-paid; medium if you cook to a guess.

Suits: Kindy or early learning, Primary or intermediate school, Community group, marae or service club

Less usual for: High school, Church, Kapa haka, choir, theatre or band

When: Winter (Jun–Aug), Matariki

How big a job: Several weeks, part-time, 7–15 people

How it works

The money, as an example sum

Take about $1,700, pay about $500 of costs, and you keep about $1,200 per event: the typical result.

From the typical figure on this page. Your result will differ.

Where the money figure comes from

No NZ fundraising total found. Prices seen: Māpua School hāngī $10 a plate and $5 desserts, with a market for its kapa haka uniform fund (Māpua School); Victory Community Centre hāngī rourou $15 (serves 2) and $25 (serves 4) (Humanitix). Totals are estimates.

Last checked October 2026. Ran this? Tell us what you raised and we’ll use real results to improve the figures.

Step by step

Pick a date near the public holiday: Friday 10 July 2026 and Friday 25 June 2027 (Te Papa).
Talk early with your local iwi, marae, kaumātua or Māori staff about how the night should open and close, and offer koha for their time.
Pre-sell hāngī or soup through your school payment system or a ticketing page, with a firm order deadline.
Ask your local astronomical society for volunteers with telescopes; Wellington Astronomical Society supported Marsden School's night (Marsden School).
Plan a programme: karakia or welcome, kapa haka, hāngī served, then stars and a lantern walk.
Add a small market and hot drinks stall for extra income.
Set a wet-weather plan (indoor hall, talk and photos instead of telescopes) and a postponement date.
Serve and hand out pre-orders from one clearly signed table; resell uncollected meals after a set time, as Victory did (Humanitix).
Close with a moment to remember people who died in the past year, a common Matariki theme (Te Papa).

Getting the word out

Even a well-run plan fails if nobody hears about it. There are two asks, and the first one goes out first.

Ask for help: Helpers for the day or night, and local businesses for prizes.
Ask people to buy: People to book tickets or tables, and turn up.
When to start: Ask for helpers first, as soon as the date is set. Start the public ask about 3–4 weeks out, and book newsletter and paper notices before that: small newsletters close early.

Where to put it

School, club and church newslettersYour own newsletter is free and read by the families most likely to say yes. Check when it closes.
PostersPosters at the school gate, the clubrooms and shop windows, with the date, place, price and how to pay.
Local Facebook pages and community groupsPost in your town’s community page and local groups (check their rules), and share from your group’s own page.
Billboards and roadside signsYour school’s or club’s own sign by the road, a banner on the fence, or a sandwich board on the day for passers-by.

The full guide to getting the word out: every channel from flyers to the evening news, with lead times and costs.

What you’ll need

Place: NeededYour own grounds or hall
Landowner’s permission: NeededYes, in writing
Council permit: Not needed
Food rules: CheckNo registration if you sell food to fundraise for a good cause up to 20 times a calendar year. It must still be safe and suitable, and your council may need a stall permit
Alcohol: Not neededNo alcohol sold
Gambling rules: Not neededNot gambling
Health and safety: CheckA simple risk check and briefing
Insurance: CheckCheck your cover

Hāngī pits or open fires may need a Fire and Emergency permit in a restricted fire season (checkitsalright.nz). Never sell homekill or hunted meat (MPI). Seek local iwi or kaumātua guidance on tikanga.

Make more from it

Pre-sold hāngī meals
$10-25 a plate in NZ examples (Māpua School; Humanitix)
the main earner and the heart of the night
Small Matariki market
$100-500 (estimate)
families browse while waiting for kai
Glow sticks and lantern kits
$50-200 (estimate)
Khandallah School sold glow sticks at its stargazing night
Kite-making table
about $5 a kit (estimate)
a daytime activity that leads into the evening

Stack it: on its own, about $1,200. With the 4 priced add-ons above, roughly

$1,600est.

What you can get donated

Meat or vegetables from a butcher or grower; telescopes and volunteers from a local astronomical society; koha for a kaumātua or speaker.

Tips

The Matariki cluster itself rises before dawn, not in the evening (Te Papa), so frame the evening as a celebration and stargazing night; offer a separate dawn viewing for keen whānau.
Harakeke rourou instead of foil trays cut waste and fit the kaupapa (Victory Community Centre via Humanitix).
Glow-stick sales and face painting add easy income for children (Khandallah School stargazing evening).

Watch out for

Treating Matariki as a theme party without Māori input can offend; get guidance first.
Winter weather: cloud cancels telescopes about as often as not; have an indoor plan (Marsden School moved telescopes indoors for rain).
Cooking more hāngī than pre-ordered leaves you with unsold meat.

Free tools for this

Event budget and break-evenCover hire, food and prizes before you set the ticket price.
Cash float and takings counterDoor and food-stall cash, counted in pairs and banked the next day.
Event run sheetOne timed plan for set-up, the event and pack-down.
Checklist for any ideaBefore, on the day and after, built from this idea’s own steps and rules.

Typical rules

Selling hāngī and baking is covered by the Food Act 2014 fundraising exemption if you sell fewer than 20 times a year, but large meat volumes need care (MPI; see ‘Hāngī or boil-up meal pre-sale’).
It is illegal to sell homekill or recreationally hunted meat, including for fundraising (MPI).
Fires or hāngī pits on school or council land may need landowner permission and, in a restricted fire season, a fire permit from Fire and Emergency (checkitsalright.nz).
If you add a raffle, gambling rules apply (see ‘Printed ticket raffle’).

Check the details

Selling food · MPI: Fundraising and community event food safety rules

Sources

Researched October 2026. All fundraising ideas

* General fundraising information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Money figures are examples and estimates, not promises. Check current official requirements before you commit. About this guide