Carla Says
David and I recently returned from Edinburgh and Europe with the last few shows in our pocket. After sifting through up to six shows per day in dozens of countries, we found a few gems for you. Not all for this year though, some are for the 2016 Festival, which we are working on concurrently.
Kia ora koutou, welcome!
While in Europe, it was also wonderful to see so many of our artists performing. Edinburgh of course was filled with New Zealanders for the NZ at Edinburgh season, about 300 of them at a rough count. Many like Mau and Black Grace got four and five star reviews and won awards. At the same time the NZ Trio performed for Queen Margrethe II of Denmark at the opening of Aarhus Festival, and our favourite Family Day clown Fraser Hooper, performed at Aurillac Street Theatre Festival in France. Congratulations to our funding partner Creative NZ for their support of NZ artists internationally. The Auckland Arts Festival was delighted to be part of making the Edinburgh series happen.
The programme is almost complete. Like preparing a wonderful feast, we are including those last important ingredients, moving performance dates and times around to ensure that each is in the correct place, budgeting and re-budgeting, writing contracts, preparing brochure copy, gathering images, and working on finding more funding and support to keep all those events that I want to include in the programme for you to experience. The launch date is set, deadlines are looming large and everyone is working flat tack.
The Marketing team are not only finalising the programme brochure but are also creating a new look website, preparing press materials and meeting media. The Production team is managing the intricate technical details of every performance and event, while the programme whanau are meticulously managing the logistics of bringing all the works to life and over 500 artists to Auckland.
All of this leads to the brochure hitting the streets and the website going live on 23 October at 6pm.
In my head I hear John Lennon singing ...
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
We can’t wait to share the programme with you.
Nga mihi mahana.
Carla van Zon,
Artistic Director
Image: (L) Carla with Mau performer RangipoPuti Ihakara on opening night at Avignon (M) Carla visiting Villeneuve, France (R) street performers in France.