Auckland City Council
Media release

7 February 2008

Pacific performers promise powerful performance

Herbs Unplugged, Teuila Blakely, Sunga and groups representing 10 Pacific island nations are among those appearing at Auckland City Council’s Pasifika Festival ACC Opening Night Concert on Friday, 7 March.

This year’s festival embraces the eel connection (Western Springs: Te Wai Orea – lake of eels). The free concert from 7pm to 9pm at Western Springs Park will provide entertainment centred on this theme and explore the different ways Pasifika people are connected through their stories of the eel.

It sets the scene for festival day on Saturday, 8 March, where more than 200,000 expected visitors can enjoy all day entertainment, traditional Pacific foods, crafts, contemporary art, music and more at one of the world’s largest free community events.

Festival director Ole Maiava says the cultural villages spread throughout the park, including a new Tangata Whenua (people of the land) village, will have their own stages to celebrate the breadth of talent among our Pacific Islands communities.

“Pasifika Festival 2008 has some exciting new elements. New to the Push Play Contemporary Stage is a section called honouring families, which will acknowledge notable family groups that have made a major contribution to the entertainment and arts industries in New Zealand.

“There will also be international Pacific artists, traditional tattooists in the Samoa village, and an international area featuring arts, crafts and music from the Solomon Islands, American Samoa and other Pacific nations,” says Mr Maiava.

“It’s not just the entertainment, it’s the aromas from each village, the arts and crafts, and the Pasifika communities of Auckland and beyond turning it all on for that incredible Pasifika experience, which I encourage all Aucklanders to be a part of.”

Visit www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/pasifika for more information about Pasifika Festival 2008.

Pasifika Festival 2008 is proudly sponsored and supported by Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), Pacific Media Network (Radio 531pi and Niu FM), Sport & Recreation New Zealand (SPARC), New Zealand Post, Ministry of Education's Team-Up, Air New Zealand, Flava 96one, New Zealand Community Trust (NZCT), Creative New Zealand, Fonterra Brands (Tip Top) Limited, McCallum Industries' Palm Corned Beef and Māori Television.

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