Mayfair Theatre Kaikoura

Kaikoura’s Mayfair Theatre is a quintessential historic art deco building which first opened its doors on 21 December 1934.

Throughout the years the theatre has survived via the input of the community. In more recent times the cinema was run by a manager and overseen by a committee of volunteers who assisted out on a regular basis.

A new 3D projector was installed on 21 November 2013, bringing the Mayfair Theatre into the 21st century! It took great initiative from the community to raise the funds to enable this and very much progressed the cinema’s capabilities.

Unfortunately a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Kaikoura on 14 November 2016, damaging the theatre beyond repair and closing its doors for the foreseeable future. Since then the theatre committee has been working hard behind the scenes, planning the construction of a new theatre on the same site. Thankfully the building’s iconic facade is unscathed and will be utilised in the rebuild - preserving the Mayfair’s overall theme.

There are big plans underway for our 2020 vision - a multi screen cinema complex which will also be a highly utilised community theatre and live venue. Of course this requires fundraising!