Above: The Sound of Silence, one of the headline shows in the Festival

The launch of the  2010 NZ International Arts Festival at the TSB Bank Arena a few weeks ago was a glittering affair. We schmoozed and listened to some long speeches as the entire programme was laid out for us in full with the help of two huge screens. As an astute Gerry Brownlee pointed out, “you might not care about the fact that I’m here, but you might care about the fat cheque that I’m bringing with me.” No beating about the bush there!

There was a distinct lack of cheese, and food for that matter, but the wine was flowing, and cameras were everywhere – fellow blogger Laura McQuillan and I even managed to get snapped for a pic in the Sunday Star Times social pages with mayoral candidate Jack Yan. Talk about famous, for all of five minutes!

At the launch we were introduced to the white boxes design devised for the 2010 Festival by Clemengers and Sauce. I found it disappointing after the catchy designs of the past (the kiwi with something sticking out of its bum was a bit of a feature), it felt like they have stripped the Festival of its bright and striking presence and hidden it away in a box. Is this a move to try and reflect our economic times? Surely we should be doing everything we can to cheer ourselves up in a recession?

Design gripes aside, the programme looks to be a solid one, and that’s what matters. Transports Exceptionnels, with a digger performing a graceful pas de deux in Waitangi Park, is one of a few free family events on the line up and it is a must see. Along with that there will be art talks and exhibitions, and mannequins bursting out of shop windows across the city for people to get involved in the Festival for free.

The first weekend of the festival (26-28 Feb) will be a mad, mad few days in Wellington. The Fringe Festival will have been running for a two weeks will all sorts of crazy antics, and the Wellington Dragon Boat Festival will be taking over the waterfront. The Festival opens on Friday 26 February with the majestic Mahler Symphony No. 8 at the Wellington Town Hall. They will also be streaming it live to a screen in Civic Square, where you can sit and enjoy it for free (you might get a cold bum, but that’s a small sacrifice). That night the play Sound of Silence opens at the TSB Bank Arena, and the dance spectacle Sutra featuring the awe-inspiring moves of Shaolin Monks opens at the St James Theatre.  Good luck booking a hotel room for that weekend in Wellington.

During the opening weekend we have Rufus Wainwright on Saturday (judging by the huge sigh that went through the crowd when he was announced, this singer songwriter will be a hit with the ladies), the awesome Apollo 13: Mission Control at Downstage (another must see, make sure you get a seat in the downstairs section so you can work the controls to help ‘bring the boys home’), and Footnote Dance’s Mtyland at Soundings Theatre.

There are many more highlights in the programme but the important  thing to remember is that tickets go on sale at 9am on  Thursday 19 November from Ticketek (this Thursday!), so be quick to secure your seats.

One thing is for sure, and that is that if you’re into your arts and culture, Wellington is the place to be next February and March. See you there!

L-R: Mahler Symphony conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy; Sutra; Rufus Wainwright

Scoopit

Digg

Reddit

Del.icio.us

Heather McDonald is a born and bred Wellingtonian who combines her love of words, the web and Wellington city in her role as content manager for Wotzon.com. Follow her on Twitter here This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 10:44 am and is filed under Capital Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.