The holidays are over but the party is about to begin…

AK05 – Auckland’s biggest festival ever takes over Auckland City in a month, offering 17 continuous days of festive activity with more than 60 events filling parks, theatres, galleries, cinemas, clubs and beaches.

Fourteen international acts are supported by 50 local gigs.

Amongst the festival line-up are major theatre and dance works, led by Australia’s hottest dance company Bangarra Dance Theatre who bring their production of Bush to the stage after a sell-out season at the Adelaide Festival. New Zealand’s most revered dancer Michael Parmenter is joined by 18 of the country’s most admired dancers, many who have returned to New Zealand especially for Parmenter’s two hour retrospective show Commotion.

Hot on the heels of rave reviews from this month’s Sydney Festival is Three Furies, Stephen Sewell’s provocative portrayal of painter Francis Bacon’s life. “Exciting, absorbing and brilliantly performed…it is audacious, angry, desperate, brutal, loving and mad...” Sydney Morning Herald.

Rap recording guru Russell Simmons, who has taken America by storm with his Broadway hit Def Poetry Jam, brings eight poets to Auckland who will mesmerise crowds with their social outpours, rapping about everything from love and sex to McDonalds and George W. Bush. And don’t miss Steven Berkoff’s rendition of Shakespeare’s Villains.

New Zealand plays Strata, Vula, and Clockwork Orange are some of the local theatre stunners.

Music lovers have a score of talent to choose from, including Japan’s Tao Drummers who debuted at last year’s Edinburgh Festival to sell out crowds and rave reviews. The New Zealand Opera and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra present a concert performance of John Adams’ controversial opera The Death of Klinghoffer, American bass Kevin Maynor recites speeches from freedom fighters Malcolm X, Gandhi and Paul Robeson and leader of world music, Zakir Hussain plays for one night only. And for the young and young at heart, Bugs Bunny On Broadway takes over the Great Hall with a spectacular fusion of classic Warner Bros. Studios cartoons projected onto the big screen.

Cabaret Decadanse brings a true festival feel to AK05 with its cabaret style puppet show for adults. Also a hit at last year’s Edinburgh Festival this is one act not to miss! Book a table for six and get into the spirit of it. Full bar available!

With internationally renowned Stalker Theatre Company performing six free events around the city there’s no shortage of free events and each Festival weekend showcases musicians such as Nesian Mystic, Golden Horse, Baitercell, Joel Haines and King Kapisi.

So start booking now, before tickets sell out and summer is over!

For more information check out:

http://www.ak05.co.nz/

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