There was plenty of magic on stage at Tūtira Ashgrove School recently, with four sold-out performances of Aladdin bringing together students, staff, whānau, local businesses and the wider community.

MoMac was proud to come on board as a co-naming rights and Gold Sponsor of the production through our 2026 Community Initiative Fund.

Our contribution focused on what our team does best, providing professional event photography and photo editing to help the school capture and share the production.

Capturing Aladdin on stage

Our content team attended both the dress rehearsal and matinee performance, photographing everything from the lead performers and dancers through to class groups and some of the bigger moments on stage.

There was also a tight turnaround behind the scenes.

Following the matinee, our team worked quickly to edit and deliver the photography the following day, giving the school the images it needed for the production programme and promotional material ahead of opening night.

With four performances across the week and two casts alternating across the shows, Aladdin involved students from across Tūtira Ashgrove School.

Each performance was sold out, with hundreds of people coming through the doors each night to see the students perform.

A huge effort from the Tūtira Ashgrove community

The scale and quality of the production was seriously impressive.

From the set design and costumes through to lighting, choreography and even a floating magic carpet, there was an incredible amount of detail throughout the show.

Most impressive, though, were the students themselves.

Students from across the school took part in the production, and those stepping into the lead acting roles did an amazing job carrying a full-scale show in front of a packed audience.

It was clear just how much preparation had gone into bringing everything together.

Principal Leon Van’t Veen’s passion for theatre was also evident throughout the production. It was great to see that enthusiasm turned into an opportunity for students to experience performing, working together and being part of something on this scale.

Local photographer and videographer Brendan from Display also supported the production with video services, producing an awesome video edit for the school.

It was a genuine community effort, and the feedback we heard throughout the week reflected just how much people enjoyed it.

Supporting our community differently

Our involvement with Aladdin came about through a conversation at the school gates.

Leon approached MoMac Director Ryan McDonald about supporting the production after seeing some of the other community initiatives and sponsorships MoMac had been involved with throughout the year.

From there, MoMac Operations Manager Merrin worked closely with Leon to organise our sponsorship and photography contribution. Merrin leads our community initiatives at MoMac and has played a big part in coordinating the organisations, events and causes we have supported throughout 2026.

The Community Initiative Fund was created because we wanted to approach some of our marketing and advertising investment differently.

Rather than putting all of that budget into traditional advertising, we wanted to invest more directly into the communities around us.

North Canterbury has been home to MoMac since we started in 2017. It’s where many of our team live, where our business has grown and where hundreds of our clients are based.

Supporting local schools, clubs, events and community organisations gives us an opportunity to use our skills and resources to help create something positive while continuing to build the MoMac brand across the region.

By the end of 2026, we expect the combined value of our community contributions and sponsorships to be around $50,000 or more.

For us, it’s about more than getting the MoMac name on a sign.

Where possible, we want to contribute the skills we have within our team, whether that’s photography, video, design, marketing or other creative services that can genuinely help an organisation.

Proud to play a small part

Aladdin was a great example of why we created the Community Initiative Fund.

Our photography was only one small part of a much bigger effort involving students, teachers, staff, whānau, volunteers, sponsors and local businesses.

But we’re proud that our team could contribute something useful and help preserve some of those memories for the students and their families.

A huge congratulations to Leon, the Tūtira Ashgrove School team and every student who stepped onto the stage.

It was an outstanding production and a very cool project for MoMac to support.

We look forward to continuing to back our local community throughout 2026 and beyond.