KEY POINTS:
Jack hammers by day, Hans Christian Andersen by night. The Auckland Festival 2009 is working constantly on an upgrade of Aotea Square to present the city's fourth biennial arts festival.
Unfortunately for the festival, the central city's main open spaces, at Britomart and Aotea Square, will be building sites during the festival from March 5 to 22.
Britomart was the festival hub in 2007, complete with Red Square and a Spiegeltent. The area is now a building site while Aotea Square is to be dug up during repairs to the leaky Aotea carpark roof and a square upgrade.
That left festival organisers planning a "bigger, better, bolder Red Square" in a carpark behind the centre which will be dressed up to host the Festival Club.
Building work will stop at the end of the day for festival goers to enjoy evening events at the Aotea Centre. Queen St, opposite the centre, will be closed for the festival opening.
Big productions at the Aotea Centre include The Anderson Project, created by a Canadian theatre company and based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy story.
Last night, the festival organisers gave a taster of five shows for the festival, which director David Malacari says will have a Pacific Ocean theme.
The Museum of Transport and Technology will be the venue - a hangar perhaps? - for Siren, a performance by British sound artist Ray Lee.
Local dance company Black Grace will premiere Gathering Clouds and the Auckland Philharmonia performs a programme, American Songs.
Malacari is tight-lipped about a "pretty fabulous" free show for the festival. In 2007, 200,000 crammed Auckland Domain for a spectacular performance by French fireworks specialists Groupe F.
He hopes the March festival will be a step up from 2007 when 284,000 people attended free events and 58,000 tickets were sold.
"Over our three-festival history, each festival has been an improvement. We try to put a stronger programme together. We try to ensure our free stuff has a certain standard of excellence."
Malacari said Auckland was not looking over its shoulder at the International Arts Festival, which has been a success in Wellington since 1986. "Wellington is down there and we are up here. Our concern is to do something for Auckland. It's a culturally rich city. It can stand on its own feet."
The last festival had a turnover of about $7.5 million. It has a major new sponsor with New Zealand Post and receives $1 million annually from Auckland City Council.
The Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill, passed on Wednesday, means other councils will contribute to the festival from next year.
