La Fiesta attracted people from all over

It has been a few weeks since La Fiesta number 13 finished.

What a ride! I have had some time off to rest and reflect so before I say anything else, let me share the most important thing. Thank YOU. To all our supporters, participants, funders, sponsors, and festival partners, you are what makes this festival such a celebration.

It is a real joy to bring this to life with all of you each summer. We had a few challenges again this year, notably running a festival whilst following the guidelines of the New Zealand Covid-19 Protection Framework, and with the arrival of the Omicron variant in our community impacting some of our partners and participants.

This resulted in some event changes and cancellations, and I am incredibly grateful for the support of our festival partners during this time as we made the necessary adjustments.

There is so much work that goes on behind the scenes over many months that most people don't see, and in cases where we had to make cancellations, I acknowledge how disappointing it can feel after all the preparation that has taken place. Still, despite all of this, I remain ever grateful that we live in an environment where we can participate in festivals and events given our current Covid world.

It was heartening to meet so many different people during the month of La Fiesta activities and to hear your feedback.

This year the festival attracted visitors from Auckland, Taranaki, Manawatū, and Wellington, as well as from across our district. I have already received interest from festival partners across the North Island wanting to book in for next year's festival.

There has been particular interest from women performers who recognise that La Fiesta provides them with a safe place and platform to showcase their talents.

With the increasing pressure that has come on New Zealand's entertainment industry over recent years to reduce its exploitation of women, non-binary and trans performers, as well as Māori and culturally diverse creatives, a festival like La Fiesta becomes even more significant in this context.

I am fiercely protective of all of our performers and presenters, and I am especially proud of the positive reputation that La Fiesta continues to develop nationwide as a space of safe holding and positive encouragement.

Look out for invitations to La Fiesta number 14 coming your way in a couple of months. In the meantime, I'll continue with business as usual at the Women's Network.

We deliver a wide variety of services and activities that are focused on supporting women through times of change, challenge, and celebration, as well as times of transition and trauma.

We also continue to provide community information services, free pregnancy testing and period products, careers assistance, and endless encouragement to individual women to develop action plans to be the best wonder woman they can be.

Behind the scenes we are engaged in a host of partnership projects and initiatives across the community that are focused on enhancing safety and wellbeing, and improved health outcomes, particularly in regard to women's health.

There is still work to do nationally and globally relating to gender equity, particularly with the international recognition and research about how much the impact of Covid-19 has disproportionately impacted women, even more so when culture is added to the mix.

As the Women's Network celebrates 35 years empowering women, I am interested to hear from you about what you might like to see on the calendar this year or next.

If you have any specific requests, ideas about events or activities that will enrich you personally or help you feel connected to women and to our community, I would love to hear all about it. Feel free to drop me a line via our email address or leave a message via our Women's Network Whanganui Facebook and Instagram pages.

I'll happily meet up with you if you'd like to chat in person. Meeting the needs of our diverse community remains as vital as ever.

Stay safe and well out there as the golden autumn days come upon us. Email me at: womnet.whanganui@gmail.com.