Recreate NZ

27/03/2026

Today’s the day! Gather your friends, whānau, neighbours, colleagues etc. and join us at Illuminate Market 2026!

✨Our special guest and MC, Jaden Movold, will be officially opening the festivities at 4pm on the Live Stage in the Reserve – you don’t want to miss this!

✨For full event details, including how to get there, parking and accessibility, visit: recreate.org.nz/illuminate

Finally, we encourage you to share the Illuminate Market experience:

✅ Tag Recreate NZ in your posts, Stories and reels
✅ Add & to your posts
✅ Support our creative entrepreneurs with a Follow on their socials
✅ Keep the conversation going about creating a truly inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand

See you soon!
🗓️Sat 28th March, 4pm – 8pm
📍Mt Albert War Memorial Hall & Reserve
🎟️Free entry, all welcome!

27/03/2026

📣Today we want to extend our gratitude to our Illuminate Market 2026 funders.

✨Thank you to our main event funder, Spectrum Foundation. Their vision is an Aotearoa New Zealand in which all disabled people have equal opportunity to live good lives. Spectrum Foundation is the parent organisation of Spectrum Care and Homes of Choice.

✨Thank you to our event funder, Albert-Eden Local Board who regularly support community events and initiatives, with the ultimate goal of creating a thriving Albert-Eden community.

Spectrum Foundation and Albert-Eden Local Board have supported Illuminate Market for multiple years now, and we look forward to continuing this relationship.🤝

One more sleep until Illuminate Market 2026! 🤩

🗓️Sat 28th March, 4pm – 8pm
📍Mt Albert War Memorial Hall & Reserve
🎟️Free entry, all welcome!

26/03/2026

A massive thank you to RNZ Nine To Noon and Kathryn Ryan for inviting us to chat about Illuminate Market 2026 on the air this morning! 🤩

🎧 Listen here 👇

The Illuminate Market this weekend brings together market stalls, food trucks, creative workshops, free live performances and fun family activities.

26/03/2026

Illuminate Market wouldn’t be complete without a mouthwatering line up of food vendors! 🤤

Purchase delicious kai from:

🍧 Mister Gelato
🍭 Sugarette NZ
🍲 Mish's Kitchen Creations
🍝 Explore Wellbeing
🍔 Wise Boys Burgers
🥟 The Rolling Pin
🍕 Crust & Craft NZ

DF, Vege and Vegan options available.

✨Illuminate Market 2026!
🗓️Sat 28th March, 4pm – 8pm
📍Mt Albert War Memorial Hall & Reserve
🎟Free entry, all welcome!

25/03/2026

“Illuminate Market isn’t just an event; it’s a celebration of people.”

Just over 48 hours until Illuminate Market 2026! 🤩 Here’s our guest speaker and MC, Jaden Movold with a special pre-event message.

✨Illuminate Market 2026
🗓️Sat 28th March, 4pm – 8pm
📍Mt Albert War Memorial Hall & Reserve
🎟️Free entry, all welcome!

25/03/2026

📣 3 days to go until Illuminate Market 2026!

At Illuminate Market you’ll be able to meet and purchase products from:

✨Velvet Skin NZ – Riyana creates natural, handmade skin products
✨Green Photography – Jonathan creates photography for frames, key rings, calendars, and more!
✨Nature Made - Flax Art by Rose Green – Rose creates handcrafted flax and floristry pieces
✨Adam’s Kawakawa - Adam creates homemade, handcrafted soaps
✨Claire’s Creative Creations - Claire creates unique handmade celebration cards
✨Fidget Toys NZ – Tristan & Xander create fidget/sensory toys ('by autistic folks, for autistic folks')

Support these and other microenterprises at Illuminate Market 2026!

🗓️Sat 28th March, 4pm – 8pm
📍Mt Albert War Memorial Hall & Reserve
Free entry, all welcome!

23/03/2026

The lads were lucky enough to take a tour through Eden Park in Auckland earlier this month! We managed to see the locker rooms, a very cool sensory space, sporting memorabilia, and an incredible view of the field and stadium from up high!

Thanks to Eden Park for your hospitality, and we look forward to coming back for an event soon!

22/03/2026

📣5 days to go until Illuminate Market 2026!

Alongside our creative entrepreneurs, we have an awesome lineup of entertainment! 🥁🎭🎧 Enjoy live performances by:

✨Daniel Stanfield Steelpan
✨DJ Jackson
✨The Mutes (from mars)
✨Glass Ceiling Arts Collective
✨Indika Mendis
✨Diaspora Indonesia NZ
✨Lil Henry
✨Eliette's Music Academy
✨Interacting Auckland
✨Robert Mullen Junior and Friends (RMJF)

All performances will take place on or in front of the Live Stage in the Reserve, MC’d by the amazing Jaden Movold!

Illuminate Market 2026
🗓️Sat 28th March, 4pm – 8pm
📍Mt Albert War Memorial Hall & Reserve
Free entry, all welcome!

20/03/2026

Today we celebrate World Down Syndrome Day alongside Down Syndrome Association! We love partnering with this amazing organisation with our Coordinator Zoe Reining hosting the Social Club for ADSA members.

"In line with this year's theme for World Down Syndrome Day 'Together against Loneliness', it has been amazing to see how new friendships are formed through our ADSA Social Clubs," says Zoe. "For our monthly events, all our young people get to engage in various, exciting activities while building new and strengthening already existing social connections. Besides our Juniors Adventure Weekend in the beautiful Whangaparāoa, my personal favourite has been the ADSA Community Engagement Day in November last year. For this additional Adults programme, we packed bags of food donations for Auckland City Mission and then volunteered with Conservation Volunteers NZ. I loved that we all got to spend time together, while giving back something meaningful to the community and the environment!"

Enjoy today to all in the Auckland Down Syndrome Association community, and we look forward to more great times in the coming year!

20/03/2026

📣Only 1 week until Illuminate Market 2026. Here’s Sylvie with a special message for you! 🎬

🗓️Sat 28th March, 4pm – 8pm
📍Mt Albert War Memorial Hall & Reserve
Free entry, all welcome!

18/03/2026

We love our trips to Rotorua, and this time we were thrilled to offer this adventurous weekend to our junior cohort of 10-15 year olds!

We ventured to Adventure Playground for a 4WD buggy tour, with our participants saying it was "the best activity they had ever done!"

Thank you to our guides Helen and Peter!

We also enjoyed the Redwoods Treewalk Rotorua, and a walk at the lake waterfront.

Thank you to our awesome participants who were willing to give something new a go, and loved it!

18/03/2026

With every Illuminate Market, we are bringing inclusion to life in real and joyful ways. 🥰

At Illuminate Market you’ll be able to meet and get info from:

✨The D List NZ – the home for disability culture in Aotearoa creating articles, in-person and online events, podcasts and more!

✨Explore Wellbeing – part of the Deaf VHN team supporting deaf and hard of hearing clients to engage confidently in their community

✨St Lukes Medical Pharmacy – will be providing free blood pressure checks, smoking cessation consults and Hep C testing.

✨Include Microgreens - a social enterprise creating work skills opportunities

✨Spectrum Care Media Lab (Easy Beats) – a creative music-making programme focused on accessible, hands-on electronic music production.

✨Gig Buddies Auckland – provides opportunities for social connection through live events

Explore these and other disability-led organisations at Illuminate Market 2026!

🗓️Sat 28th March, 4pm – 8pm
📍Mt Albert War Memorial Hall & Reserve
Free entry, all welcome!