Wānaka Festival Of Colour Announces First Shows For 2025 Programme

Wānaka Festival of Colour, running from 29 March – 6 April 2025 , is thrilled to announce the first three performances in the much anticipated 2025 programme: ANIMAL, An Evening Without Kate Bush and Reimagining Mozart. The full festival line-up will be announced in January.

An Evening Without Kate Bush is an utterly hilarious, beautifully constructed and clever show and has wowed audiences around the world. The brainchild of  Sarah-Louise Young and Rusell Lucas, this award-winning cult cabaret pays glorious tribute to the music, fans and mythology of one of the most influential voices in pop music. Whether you’ve been a devoted fan for decades or more recently discovered her magic through Stranger Things, there’s never been a better time to unleash your inner Bush and revel in this joyful, unique, and mind-blowing celebration of an iconic artist.

Celebrated for their high-flying antics and infectious energy, Cirque Alfonse (Québec) spins childhood memories and rural cliches into ANIMAL, a surreal intergenerational circus adventure set to an infectious live soundtrack of 'agricultural funk’. A production for young and old alike, performers flip farm life on its head – and the barn upside down! The chickens sprout teeth, the ducks give side-eye and the cows kick up more than just dirt. Expect jaw-dropping acrobatics, daring juggling (everything from eggs to giant cowbells), tap dancing, absurd humour and even a tractor doing wheelies.

Finally, Wānaka Festival of Colour is partnering with Chamber Music New Zealand to present Reimagining Mozart. In this beautiful work Robert Wiremu (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Porou) commemorates the tragedy of Air New Zealand Flight TE901 by reimagining Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem, which was left unfinished at the time of his death in 1791. Reimagining Mozart features the internationally acclaimed Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and a chamber ensemble of instrumentalists under the direction of Voices founder and Music Director Dr Karen Grylls.

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