To the inattentive observer, it may seem like every other week there is some sort of festival happening around Auckland. This last month has been chock-a-block, with Pride and Auckland cultural festivals occurring alongside various film and music celebrations.
Yet people should learn to appreciate the festivals while they last, as you never know when one may end up being its last. That was a threat that loomed over the Auckland Fringe Festival last year, when the biennial arts festival did not receive the funding it had been expecting.
"In about September 2016, we found out we had not received anything from those funding rounds, which is always really gutting," Lydia Zanetti, the festival's director, recalls.
It nearly meant the end of one of Auckland's biggest festivals. Beginning in 2009, the festival is a celebration of art, a showcase for the more inventive, risky and sometimes bizarre ideas that creatives come up with.
Faced with no funds, it was looking like the festival would have to be called off, until Zanetti approached the artists.
