Festival Support Acts A Talent Smorgasbord

January 2, 2006

Festival Support Acts A Talent Smorgasbord

There’s a smorgasbord of international dance, music, art and craft from support acts for next month’s Porirua City Festival of the Elements on Waitangi Day, Monday February 6.

Headliners already announced include the Taumata Whitireia Dance Company, jazz trumpet diva Edwina Thorn, the very popular Hobnail Boots band, California Dreamers, the Te Papa TREATY 2 U touring exhibition on the Treaty of Waitangi, Circus Oz’s Deborah Pope, and an exciting new show by Body FX supported by fire dancers.

The Festival of the Elements is held at Te Rauparaha Park, off Norrie Street, and at the neighbouring Pataka Art Gallery and Museum, and the Porirua Recreation Centre.

In Pataka, there’ll be a special presentation on calligraphy and cartography from Daniel Reeve - one of the creative talents behind the Christmas blockbusters King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and all three of the Lord of the Rings movies.

Reeve has also done artwork for the games of Risk and Monopoly for Hasbro, maps of Middle-earth and tengwar lettered trading cards for Decipher, titles and menus for Extended Edition DVDs, and maps for a computer game by Electronic Arts.

Also in Pataka will be Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, winner of the 2005 Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry. He and his wife Meg will present poetry readings.

Festival Coordinator Margaret Armour says that the headliners will be well supported on the Festival programme by a bevy of wonderful acts presenting music and dance from Ireland, Sri Lanka, the Pacific Islands, Japan, the Philippines, Poland, Mexico and India.

“This year the Festival Entertainment will not only cross many international borders, but will present a wide ranging taste of all types of dance and music. Definitely something for every one of all ages,” Ms Armour says.

The Festival smorgasbord ranges from what promises to be a splendid performance from the Wellington Choir of World Singers through to Yiddish music, hip hop, rock and roll, traditional and contemporary Irish music, acoustic guitar, barbershop singing, jazz, the Celtic harp, percussion, and the return of the very popular line dancing.

The support programme includes:
- Klezmer Rebs – Yiddish & eastern European band
- Nina Swift – celtic harp
- The Wellington Choir of World Song Singers
- The Sri Lankan Cultural Circle
- Atuhau Makaka Niue
-The Thomas Kennedy Mukume Taiko (Japanese) Drummers
- Deborah Hale Musical Theatre
- Born to Siva Hip Hop Dance Group
- The Wellington International Filipino Society
- Showkids
- The Kiribati Cultural Group
- Maria Ortiz
- The Lublin (Polish) Dance group
- Kauhiva Tokelau Group Porirua
- Carlos Navarette - (Mexican)
- The Kapi Mana Rock and Roll Club
- A Fijian group
- The Ceroc Stars
- Random Actz
- Line Dancing – the Outerline Line Dancers
- Fujansu – a threesome hip hop group with a Polynesian flavour

There will be a full programme of entertainment in the Bottle Creek Gallery at Pataka, a special programme yet to be announced in the performing Arts Space,
and within the Spine various artists will display their talents, including an origami master, Niuean weavers, a bonsai specialist, Daniel Reeve, a carver and an artist.

The annual Festival sculpture competition will start at 8am and finish at 6pm.

Art, craft and food stalls will be located through Te Rauparaha Park.

There also will be a family fun day in the Porirua Aquatic Centre with a $10.00 family pass to cover a family of up to 5 people. Special inflatables will be brought in for the event, and there will be games and prizes for families.

In the Porirua Recreation Centre, a new programme for primary school children, the Kapi-Mana Art Action, will be underway throughout the day. This will include a range of art activities for children up to 12 year olds, and special entertainment by and for this age group. Headlining for the under five age group will be the ever popular "Plops". Art Action will also include a circus skills programme with Circus Oz’s Deborah Pope. The programme will cover aerial trapeze work, tumbling and juggling and the ever popular trampolining for the littlies.

At the Porirua Skateboard Park, a new Festival competition will be held with a one and a half thousand dollar main prize in the open section, and plenty of prizes on offer in a section for less experienced and younger skateboarders. Learn to skateboard coaching will also be on offer.

The Festival will end with a spectacular Festival Fireworks show at 9.45pm. Entry to the Festival is free.

All festival details are posted on the Festival website at www.elementsfestival.co.nz

ENDS

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