Family Fun Night

5 Nov 2025

Hundreds of people descended on the annual Family Fun Night in New Brighton on Friday night in what the organisers describe as a ‘fun and safe alternative to trick of treating’. Children and not so young children played carnival style games, enjoyed the various inflatables, mechanical surfboard, listened to local youth bands perform, ate from the food trucks and took home some of the 30 kg of lollies that were given away. The event was ran at Grace Vineyard Beach Campus, in partnership with Youth Alive Trust, with the support of key sponsorship Home Foundation.

One of the organisers, James Ridpath, manager of Youth Alive Trust said “The place was buzzing! I don’t know if that was the lollies, the candy floss or just the amount of fun activities on offer – but all the smiles and thank you’s as people left, made it all worthwhile”. The event has been running in New Brighton for nearly 20 years, and it took over 50 volunteers from Grace Vineyard Church and Youth Alive Trust to run all the activities. Volunteer coordinator, Hannah Donald, said “we had people as young as 12 and as old as, err, somewhere in their 80s, helping run games, facepainting, cooking the BBQ, running the photobooth – the team effort was phenomenal, and that’s one of the hightlights of the whole event”.

Hundreds of people descended on the annual Family Fun Night in New Brighton on Friday night in what the organisers describe as a ‘fun and safe alternative to trick of treating’. Children and not so young children played carnival style games, enjoyed the various inflatables, mechanical surfboard, listened to local youth bands perform, ate from the food trucks and took home some of the 30 kg of lollies that were given away. The event was ran at Grace Vineyard Beach Campus, in partnership with Youth Alive Trust, with the support of key sponsorship Home Foundation. One of the organisers, James Ridpath, manager of Youth Alive Trust said “The place was buzzing! I don’t know if that was the lollies, the candy floss or just the amount of fun activities on offer – but all the smiles and thank you’s as people left, made it all worthwhile”.

Massive thanks to our major sponsor Home Foundation, and other supporters including The Warehouse, Kairos Food Rescue, Compassion Trust, Amplify School of Music and the many many volunteers who ran the activities on the night – you were amazing! Check out the Photo Album and this years Highlights Video:

 

9 Oct 2025

Family Fun Night 2025 – Friday 31st October

Everyone is welcome to the annual Family Fun Night from 5:00pm – 7:30pm at Grace Vineyard Beach Campus, 111 Seaview Road, New Brighton. Plenty of parking on Beresford Street.
For just $2 per person, join in a large variety of carnival games, inflatables, photo booth, food trucks (to purchase), live youth bands, RISE performance and a show by an entertainer.
We encourage ‘non-spooky’ dress-up’s because it’s a safe & fun alternative to Trick or Treating.
Thanks to Home Foundation for your kind sponsorship of our inflatables area.

Updates and more info at this facebook event:

www.facebook.com/events/1124599442486657

5 Nov 2024

What an amazing night! So many happy smiley faces, great community vibes, sweet tunes and 40kg of lollies shared around. Massive thanks to Te Pākau Maru for sponsoring the inflatables!! Thanks to Bidfood, Kairos Food Rescue & Compassion Trust for sponsoring the BBQ. Massive thanks to the army of volunteers who ran the activities and games throughout the night – too many to mention! Thanks to Amplify School of Music and all the bands, Silly Billy our entertainer and the food trucks.

9 Nov 2023

Probably the best Family Fun Night ever! Can you spot yourself? 800 people of all ages played lots of games, were entertained, won lots of lollies, ate from food trucks and didn’t have to battle the weather elements going door knocking. Massive thanks to the staff and 60+ volunteers who ran all the carnival games, inflatables, photo booth, disco, performed in bands and did the clean-up. The event has been running annually since 2006 by Youth Alive Trust and Grace Vineyard Beach Campus.
If you attended, we’d love to hear any feedback so we can make next years event even better!

https://forms.office.com/r/x6JCyrHPJj

Here are some of the comments from our survey so far:
• Amazing volunteers, so engaging with my boys, and made it so special and fun.
• Safe environment for kids, food options, entertainment
• I loved that everything was all in the one space
• My son is 5 and has asd and he had so much fun and we had no meltdowns except for when we went to leave. We always look forward to you guys running this, thank you.
• Safe, fun, affordable. So amazing that everything was free once we were in.
• Really great team running the event, everyone friendly and calm
• We love you. All the staff were friendly and kind and we were super impressed with how well run it all was.

27 Oct 2023

26 Oct 2023

25 Oct 2023

14 Oct 2023

We are greatly looking forward to this year’s Family Fun Night in October! Save the date – 31/10/2023!

3 Nov 2022

17 Oct 2022

27 Sep 2022

We’re back!!! Everyone is welcome from 5:00pm – 7:30pm @ Grace Vineyard Beach Campus. For just $2 entry, join in a large variety of carnival games, bouncy castles, games, food trucks (to purchase), photo booth, live youth bands and a performance from Elgregoe!!  We encourage ‘non-spooky’ dress-up’s because it’s a safe & fun alternative to Trick or Treating.

18 Oct 2021

1 Oct 2021

We are really disappointed to be cancelling our annual Family Fun Night again this year because of Covid. We know many families had been to every event since we started it in 2006, but we’ll be back stronger next year! To reminisce, you can find highlights videos of all our Family Fun Nights on the Youth Alive Trust YouTube Channel – you might even spot yourself! Kia Kaha

 

Just two months until our epic Family Fun Night!

This year we’re holding Family Fun Night on Saturday the 30th, Elgregoe is going to be our entertainer, there will be a photo booth and high speed racecar simulators by SERIOUS FUN Corporate & Team Building Events.

Everyone is welcome from 5:00pm – 7:30pm @ Grace Vineyard Beach Campus, 111 Seaview Road, New Brighton. Plenty of parking on Beresford Street. For only a gold coin donation, join in a large variety of carnival games, bouncy castles, arts & crafts, games, food trucks (to purchase), and live youth bands!!

We encourage ‘non-spooky’ dress-up’s because it’s a safe & fun alternative to Trick or Treating.

 

14 Sep 2020

2020 Event – Cancelled!!!!!!!!!

Today we’ve made the sad sad decision to cancel the 2020 Family Fun Night due to Covid restrictions. Too much time, resources and money goes into planning this popular annual event, and with so much uncertainty, we’ve had to make the call 6 weeks out. Please pass it onto friends and family who normally attend. We’ll be back in 2021! Kia Kaha

1 Oct 2019

Just one month until our epic Family Fun Night!

Everyone is welcome from 5:00pm – 7:30pm @ Grace Vineyard Beach Campus, 111 Seaview Road, New Brighton. Plenty of parking on Beresford Street.  For only a gold coin donation, join in a large variety of carnival games, bouncy castles, arts & crafts, games, food trucks (to purchase), and live youth bands!!

We encourage ‘non-spooky’ dress-up’s because it’s a safe & fun alternative to Trick or Treating.

https://www.facebook.com/events/2318253878424909/

14 Nov 2018

5 Nov 2018

11 Oct 2017

Family Fun Night 2017 – Tuesday 31st October

Everyone is welcome to the annual Family Fun Night from
5:00pm – 7:30pm @ Grace Vineyard Beach Campus, 111 Seaview Road, New Brighton. Plenty of parking on Beresford Street.