Picnic for Westies turns into festival

Chloe Waretini. Photo / Sarah Ivey

When Chloe Waretini put her hand up to organise a "rebellious" grassroots sendoff for Waitakere City tomorrow, she thought she might need to give about 15 hours a week to it.

Six weeks later, an event that she envisaged as "a community picnic for a couple of hundred people" has become a free music festival expected to attract up to 5000 Westies.

And Mrs Waretini, a 24-year-old graphic designer with no event management experience, has found herself giving it "probably 60 or 70 hours a week".

"I started putting the message out there that we were going to do it, and it turned into something much bigger because there was so much passion about the West," she said.

"Having a slightly rebellious, community-driven event done in a very uncontrolled, organic way epitomises all the things that we value in the West."

The "Viva Waitakere" event was conceived after a public outcry forced the cancellation of a ratepayer-funded official sendoff for Waitakere City, which will be absorbed into the new Auckland Super City on Monday.

Mrs Waretini, her mother Meredith Youngson of Waitakere Health Link, Janet Cole of Community Waitakere and Penny Hulse, Waitakere's outgoing deputy mayor, came up with the idea over early-morning coffee.

Ms Hulse suggested the venue - soccer fields at Henderson Park behind the Corban Estate arts centre.

Mandy Patmore, a regular performer at the Titirangi music festival and a good friend of Mrs Waretini, was one of the first musicians to sign up.

Since then, a stellar lineup of Westie bands including Mile High and the Nukes have agreed to perform free from the back of a donated truck.

The Twitch, a punk rock'n'roll band who are on a national tour, are flying back from the South Island to take part.

The Kiwileles, a group of children on ukuleles, will kick off the five-hour event just before 4pm.

Although entry will be free, buckets will be circulated to raise money for a "Waitakere fund", under the umbrella of the new Auckland Communities Foundation, that aims to keep the ideals of Waitakere's "eco-city" alive.

Community Waitakere head Tony Mayow, a trustee of the foundation, said the fund would support "collaborative projects and programmes which put together issues of the environment with issues of social development and economic development".

"We set ourselves a goal of raising $5 million over a period of years. I know there's several thousand in there already," he said.

Westie businesses Charlie's and Tasti Products will give the proceeds from their sales at the festival to the fund.

The festival will also feature food stalls and a "community marketplace" for non-profit Westie groups.