Tribute to the Queen

21 Sep 2022 • By -

All lit up: The Cambridge Town Hall on Sunday night. Photo: Alysha Gill.

Cambridge Town Hall was a mass of colour in a stunning four-day light show honouring Queen Elizabeth at the weekend.

The hall featured images from her and Prince Philip’s New Year’s Day 1954 visit to Cambridge.

The show finished on Monday night just as her funeral began.

Lighting company SBI Productions was able to use the template it used four years ago for the Le Quesnoy remembrance celebrations to show the queen on the hall’s first floor – where once there was a cinema – at three different stages of her reign.

Then two shots from the visit – one at the civic reception in the Town Square and the other of the Queen and Prince Philip coming out of the Town Hall after an invite-only luncheon in her honour – were displayed across the bottom.

The Town Clock was lit up with red and blue lights throughout prompting, SBI Productions to add them to the Town Hall setting on Sunday night.

The show was funded by Waipā mayor Jim Mylchreest’s discretionary fund and ran from Friday to Monday starting just after 7pm.

Sunday 18 September

Waipā District Council has honoured the late Queen Elizabeth II with a four-night light show.

The lightshow began on Friday at 7:30pm on the Cambridge Town Hall with images of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and finishes on Monday September 19, finishing at 11pm, noting the Queen’s funeral starts at 10pm (NZ time).

RIP Queen Elizabeth II: 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022

Photos of the Queen’s visit to Cambridge in 1954 were included and three images of the Queen at various stages of her reign.

The New Year’s Day visit in 1954 involved a morning trip from Te Awamutu to King Country and the Waitomo Caves, a formal civic welcome in Cambridge, lunch in the Town Hall and a visit to the Karāpiro hydro station.

The Queen and Duke received a formal civic welcome and dined in the Town Hall. Scenes from Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s New Year’s Day 1954 visit to Cambridge. Photos: Cambridge Museum

Read: Board’s tribute to the Queen

The Day the Queen came to town

: Queen Elizabeth II in Te Awamutu, 1954. Queen Elizabeth is walking onto the stage and directly behind her, partially hidden, is Mayor Clifton Frank Jacobs. At the bottom of the stairs Prince Philip is talking to Mayoress Veda Jacobs. © Te Awamutu Museum.