This study provides a commentary of the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 as a theoretical (as well as empirical) event. Drawing on the ideas of Alain Badiou, it represents the earthquakes and their aftershocks as a rupturing of the established order of things; a distinctive space in which fidelity to the event has the potential to unleash new beginnings and imaginations. Qualitative research by the authors with older people and third sector organisations in Christchurch provides initial evidence of the mundane encounters with the truth of the event, and of the fostering of alternative subjectivities and creative participatory practices that arise in fidelity to the event.