Kia ora e te whānau, 

As you may be aware already, there has been an increase in Covid-infections in our community over the last couple of days. We are monitoring the situation closely so that we can make decisions regarding our events and their safety where needed. 

Keeping our community, artists, team and crew safe and well is our #1 priority, and we are doing all we can to ensure this.

We would therefore like to recommend you wear a mask inside our Festival venues and when in close proximity to our team members and crew – this includes our artists, front of house staff, box office crew, technicians and all staff in our Festival venues. 

This may feel like an inconvenience to some, but we trust that wearing a mask around others is an easy and effective measure to keep yourself and others safe during these uncertain times. As long as we all stay healthy, we can share our wonderful arts experiences and events with you! 

If you are unwell, please stay at home. We have some amazing online events for you to enjoy even if you cannot come to our in-person events while you look after your health. As a thank you for keeping our community safe, we can offer you a refund on your ticket – please contact us a minimum of two hours ahead of the event via the Theatre Royal Box Office if you are unwell and would like a refund of your ticket: 03 548 3840 or boxoffice@theatreroyalnelson.co.nz 

If you have any other pātai, we can be reached via info@nelsonartsfestival.nz (just bear with us if we cannot respond immediately – we’re all hands on deck running the Festival so emails may take a bit longer to be responded to). 

Thank you for your understanding and support, arts lovers. 

Stay safe and well and enjoy the final five days of our 2022 Festival – so much goodness still to come! 

Ngā mihi maioha, 

Your Nelson Arts Festival team  

All of the incredible things on offer to our younger ones are now available for download – easy as that!

Check out the full programme for download: click here

And contact education@nelsonartsfestival.nz if you’d like to book in.

Ok, strap yourselves in – here we go again!

We are delighted to bring you a full, bold and exciting 2022 Nelson Arts Festival.

From a giant flying iceberg to tiny whispers, the programme continues to bring to life the vision we co-created with you, our community, back in 2019: celebrating the arts and our community; championing inclusivity, creativity and connection; revitalising our CBD and placing unmissable arts experiences in unexpected places.

We’re so happy to be here now, in this moment in time, in Whakatū. As we move forward, it’s important to acknowledge we would not have survived the past two years of COVID-19 challenges without the unwavering support of our core festival team, our contractors, artists and volunteers, and of course our incredible funders and partners.
Amazing humans all around, we feel your love and support, and can’t wait to see you this October!

And now, go on, explore, enjoy, plan and get excited about this year’s 11 days of unmissable arts experiences for and with Whakatū. Find the full programme here.

Brent Thawley, Te Tiamana | Chair, Nelson Festivals Trust

They are akin to a storm, long seen in the distance and then wildly all-encompassing when on top of you.

Festivals take you for a ride, and we wouldn’t want them any other way. But not all storms are alike, and not all environments are either. This storm, on this day, in this place, is hugely different from 2021, 2020, or particularly 2019. And so we put on our coats and head out to jump in puddles, to see if we can soar on the gusts and to feel the rain on our faces. This Festival, this creative storm, holds us here, now, in this moment – and for all its challenges, we celebrate it, challenge it, thrive in it, fly in it.

The presentness to this moment (and the certainty of change) means Nelson Arts Festival has to change too. We are making a Festival with our community at its heart, embracing a wider range of artists and spaces in Whakatū and beyond, looking to different framings where even more of our community may feel seen and safe, and embedding the community in a multitude of aspects of the programme.
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed many aspects of our lives, and by necessity our programme. This year we’re not holding events which bring together large crowds focused on one experience over a short space of time, which means there is no Mask Parade and Carnivale this festival. It’s a multigenerational event, and the younger and older members of our community are particularly vulnerable. We know the Carnivale is much loved, so we have split elements of it across the programme: Masks About Town which celebrates the creativity and history of mask culture and making in our community; a big event for the whole community in THAW; and community-led making embedded across the Festival – more details about how to get involved are in the following pages.

After premiering at Sydney Festival in January, we are super excited to be bringing the call to climate action THAW to Whakatū for its Aotearoa premiere. Across 8 hours audiences can come and go, experiencing this wholly unique and life- changing event safely and comfortably.
The storms of now have given us the opportunity to trial new things, reach further, innovate and extend ourselves. This begins to manifest in the programme this year in an expanded Access Programme, continual growth in our Tamariki and Rangatahi Programme, and new initiatives such as the inaugural By Whakatū residency at the Suter Theatre.

From flying icebergs to boxing ring poetry slams, Pasifika cabaret/dance extravaganzas to Ukrainian pop musos, celebrations of Keri Hulme, Rita Angus and Don McGlashan, Dancing With The Stars celebs to Cousins acting prowess, jazz from dawn to nightfall, Ockham winners to book launches, everything from exhibitions, performances, workshops, whispers in the streets, parties, words, discussions, rituals, residencies and unforgettable experiences, in halls, theatres, galleries, cafes, heritage sites, Kōhanga Reo and digital platforms, and, to top it all off, a burning piano to see the storm through.

What will tomorrow bring? Release yourself into the storm and let’s find out, together.

Nau mai, haere mai e te whānau!
Lydia, Annie, Rose, Kerry, Wendy, Natalie, Nerys, Olivia, Maria, JR, Antony & the Nelson Arts Festival team