The 8th annual Hawke's Bay Arts Festival launched this week offering a varied and accessible programme across a range of arts forms, including theatre, music, dance, opera, comedy, family events, visual arts and a weekend of literary events. With 65 shows over the two-week period from 14-30th October, there is something for everyone. The Festival programme is now online at www.hbaf.co.nz with tickets available to purchase. Printed programmes are available to pick up from local cafés, galleries, libraries and i-sites across the region.
Whiria te tāngata is a Māori whakatauki (proverb) meaning to Weave the people together. This is our kaupapa for the Festival as we navigate challenging times for our community. Frayed around the edges, we aim to bring the strands back together, weaving artists, makers and creators into a beautiful showcase of works from Aotearoa and further afield. The Festival Director Pitsch Leiser said: "This is a festival to bring us all back together in celebration of our community, the arts and our humanity. We can't wait to welcome you and share in two wonderful weeks of exuberance and delight to free your heart and feed your soul."
The opening weekend in October brings a local spotlight onto the beautiful craft of our Ngāti Kahungunu weavers, with their collective of offerings under the title Whiria! Connected to the Festival whakatauki Whiria means to plait, a call to bring people together, weaving and encouraging interaction. This will be a special day in The Ballroom of the newly opened Municipal Buildings.
The weighty music line-up includes national and international legends, the Festival opening night brings Canadian Frazey Ford and the Quiet Revolution to Hawke's Bay for the first time. The renowned Don McGlashen and Others returns to the Festival stage journeying through his latest album Bright November Morning, Rebel combines the music of David Bowie with circus, an incredible rock and roll party. Letters from Iraq is a special performance from Grammy-winning Iraqi-American composer and oud player, Rahim Alhaj alongside the New Zealand String Quartet, Jackie Goes Prima Diva in association with the Small Hall Sessions brings this homegrown chanteuse to the halls of rural Hawke's Bay. Winner of the coveted 2022 Taite Music Prize Anthonie Tonnon presents his third album, Leave Love Out of This. Teremoana Rapley premiering her album Daughter Of a Housegirl, that has been 30 years in the making. Mahler's Symphony No.2 - The Resurrection Symphony presented by Festival Opera is an appropriate collaboration for the current turbulent times.