AK07 seeks Young Producers

The Auckland Festival, AK07 and Westpac are giving away $20,000 to talented young Aucklanders in a new competition launched this week. The Westpac Young Producers Competition will give up to 10 young people a kick-start in their creative careers.

Auckland residents aged between 14 and 18 are invited to apply for the chance to run the major youth event for the Auckland Festival, AK07. Applicants must ‘pitch’ their idea and $20,000 budget online at www.youngproducers.co.nz before December 1st.

The winning group will receive a $20,000 Westpac Student Pac Account, access to Auckland Festival offices and free hire of the Auckland Festival Hub – Red Square. The Westpac Young Producers will also receive mentorship from industry experts in the fields of production, stage management, marketing, publicity, artist liaison and administration.

As well as supplying the cash Westpac staff will be assisting the Westpac Young Producers with budgeting. Rose-Marie Schiavuzzi from Westpac says: “We want to empower young people to follow their dreams, while helping them learn how to handle their finances. The Westpac Young Producers is a great way to achieve that.”

Auckland Festival Education Coordinator, Clare Carmody said that The Westpac Young Producers will be a first for Auckland. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Auckland before…probably because it seems like such a risk to give so much money to people with relatively little experience. But we aren’t looking for experience. We just want young people with great ideas and heaps of energy.”

She says that the competition was created in order to support young New Zealand art and artists: “The best way to foster sustainable arts industry is to invest in young producers. They are the ones who make it all happen. If you have good young producers then young artists will get the chances they deserve.”

The Westpac Young Producers Competition is launched on November 1st 2006. All details can be found online at www.youngproducers.co.nz

The Auckland Festival will take place between March 9 – 25 and feature over 50 events all over Auckland. The Westpac Young Producers event will happen on March 17 at Britomart.

Carmody says, “We don’t even know what the young producer’s event will be like. It might be like the Big Day Out or it might be like nothing we have ever seen before. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.”

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