Each festival offers a multitude of events and opportunities to visit and admire some of Tauranga's most beautiful gardens and amazing art.
It once again shows how many Tauranga residents value arts and culture.
There is also the Tauranga Arts Festival, which kicks off in a month's time.
It was established 16 years ago, in 1999, and has been a major event ever since.
It again proves Tauranga has a strong culture and arts focus.
(As a side note, I'm really looking forward to the chance to check out the Exxopolis during this year's festival.)
Just finished, is the 58th Tauranga Festival of Performing Arts. This event saw more than 600 people perform more than 2500 items.
It has been running even longer than the Jazz Festival, showing just how early on Tauranga's affiliation with the arts began.
Tauranga is now growing rapidly and I believe the city's culture and arts will follow suit as more people move to the city and become involved.
As outgoing Creative Tauranga chief executive Tracey Rudduck-Gudsell told reporter Dawn Picken in today's Inside Story "people say they're a 'nice to have', but they're not, the arts are a 'need to have'".
I agree every city needs some sort of arts and culture scene but I think we too often overlook what we already have.
The Tauranga Art Gallery has world-class exhibitions on all the time and provides workshops for kids.
We also have a growing number of markets popping up, which all provide an opportunity for locals to showcase their art and craft or perform at.
We need to be thinking outside the box and looking for new opportunities to showcase the talent on offer in the Bay.
We need to be open to different types of art and culture presented in different formats.
They can't all be seated concerts at Baycourt or quiet exhibitions in a gallery.
As Tracey Rudduck-Gudsell mentions, to some graffiti (also known as aerosol art) is art.
The other issue bound to come up with such a topic is the debate around the need for a museum in Tauranga.
I'm all for a museum in Tauranga but, as our city leaders said in today's story, it's a matter of finding the money to fund the set-up and ongoing operation of it.
Right now, I think they are doing the right thing by putting money into infrastructure to help our city cope with its rapid growth.
The Tauranga Art Gallery and Creative Tauranga are largely council funded.
Tauranga City Council will this year spend more than $900,000 on funding the organisations.
I think the Art Gallery and Creative Tauranga should take responsibility for developing and encouraging more art and culture with some of that funding which comes from our rates.
