|
New Zealand has many
annual festivals, concerts, shows and events.
Writers & Readers Festival : The Auckland Writers & Readers
Festival was created in 1999 by a committed group of writers and book lovers eager for an
Auckland festival
 of ideas celebrating books and reading. Creative
Directors Peter Wells and Stephanie Johnson initiated meetings with
a group of like-minded friends in order to set up the first Auckland
Writers' Festival in 1999. The Festival is now run by the Auckland
Writers & Readers Festival Charitable Trust. The Festival is now a
biennial event; the fifth Festival will take place in May 2005.
The Festival is a highlight of Auckland City's cultural calendar,
and brings together acclaimed writers and thousands of readers in a
long weekend of innovative programming. The Festival enjoys both a
growing international profile and strong local support.
International writers at past festivals have included David Malouf,
Joanne Harris, Amy Tan, Edward Rutherfurd, Frank Moorhouse, Robert
Dessaix, Sarah Waters, Simon Winchester, Jane Smiley, Kate O'Riordan
and Delia Falconer.
The Festival also features top New Zealand and Pacific writers,
having already hosted Maurice Gee, Patricia Grace, C.K. Stead, Bill
Manhire, Witi Ihimaera, Albert Wendt, Alan Duff, Elizabeth Knox,
Briar Grace-Smith, Duncan Sarkies, Charlotte Randall, Marilyn
Duckworth, Owen Marshall, Catherine Chidgey and Shonagh Koea in the
first four festivals.
The Oyster Bay Bluff Oyster & Southland Seafood Festival : The
Oyster Bay Bluff Oyster & Southland Seafood Festival is an annual
event held in the Bluff Event Centre, The Festival will be operating
with its own currency. Currency can be purchased from the Festival
Banks at the venue. A bus service will run from Invercargill to
Bluff on the morning of the festival and return late afternoon. The
timetable will be published in the Southland Times on the day of the
festival. The Invercargill i-site and accommodation providers will
also have the bus timetable. Restaurants managed by top quality
chefs, will have the food matched to an attached winery. There will
be some dishes with non-seafood content, deserts and cheeses
allowing everyone to enjoy a unique taste of Southland.
The Christchurch Arts Festival : The Christchurch Arts Festival
presents a broad and bold programme of high quality arts events
targeting the residents and visitors of Christchurch. Around two
thirds of the programme is New Zealand-sourced, with a special
emphasis on showcasing landmark New Zealand performance and
exhibitions. The remaining third is internationally sourced.The
Festival aims to take its audiences on a journey of discovery, to
present material that extends people's experience of the arts, that
contains a carefully selected mix of favourites, and new, innovative
performance. The Festival showcases the best New Zealand and
international artists in a biennial programme of theatre, dance,
music, opera, the literary and visual arts, that is uncompromising
in quality and style of programme, communication, presentation and
organisation.
Ellerslie Flower Festival : In 2004 the Rotary Club of Auckland sold
the business of the Ellerslie Flower Show and visitors will be
delighted to know that the EFS Charitable Trust now operates the
event, with the intention of providing support at a community level
and to the horticultural industry. A team of seven passionate people
work on the show, from the minute the gates open one year to an
eager crowd until the next event 12 months later. They are assisted
during showtime by hundreds of Volunteers who help to keep the show
running smoothly each year assisting with ticket sales, rubbish
collection, traffic management and parking.
A month before the show opens in November, the team calls on groups
of contractors and enthusiastic workers to help construct the site.
They work non-stop over those four weeks to transform parkland into
a canvas town with all of the facilities and services needed to
stage a successful show. Their job is to construct the marquees,
prepare garden sites, provide services such as water, electricity
and communications and erect security fences. The Ellerslie Flower
Show moved to its current permanent home at the Auckland Regional
Botanic Gardens in Manukau City in 1998. It is the perfect setting
for the show, nestled within the Botanic Gardens and native bush.
The show’s 5.5 hectare site is cared for and maintained throughout
the year by the dedicated staff of the Botanic Gardens and together
with the Ellerslie Flower Show team, they are constantly coming up
with new ways to improve the site to make the annual event bigger
and better each year.
|
