Tainui Secondary Schools’ Kapa Haka Festival

Tū Tama Rā – Stand Strong and True (Tainui Secondary Schools’ Kapa Haka Festival)

Tainui Secondary Schools’ Kapahaka Festival, Claudelands Arena, Saturday 16th May 2015
First school performance 8.30am
Doorsales open 7.30am, EFTPOS available
Adults $10
Under 18’s $5
Infants FREE (shared seating)
Cash presales from MVP KUTZ Barber Shop, Radio Tainui and participating schools.

https://www.facebook.com/TainuiSecondarySchoolsKapaHaka

Saturday 16th May 2015 sees the Tainui Secondary Schools’ Kapa Haka Festival step out of the highschool arena for the first time, and into Hamilton’s prestigious Claudelands Arena.

As the largest event in the region’s secondary schools’ calendar, the bi-annual festival has steadily developed since it’s inception at Ngāruawahia High School in 2000. The most recent festival attracted over 400 performers from 12 schools and around 1500 spectators. This year, it is expected the audience will at least double.

Tainui Teachers’ Association event organizer Toti West says, “Every festival in the past has been hosted by individual schools; the 2013 festival was hosted by Hamilton Boys’ High. It was held in the school gymnasium, and on the day, people were turned away because they couldn’t fit. We are really excited to host as a collective, but also at a large venue such as Claudelands Arena, because it will allow the kaupapa to continue to grow in the way that it is ready to.”

Throughout the Festival, each team will perform an electrifying bracket of 30 minutes, judged by a panel of experts. At the end of the day, the four top contenders announced will go on to represent Tainui at the 2016 Secondary Schools’ Nationals in Hastings.

Of particular note for Tainui is the performance of current reigning national champions, local school Te Wharekura o Rākaumangamanga of Huntly who won the title at Secondary School’s Kapahaka Nationals in Gisborne 2014.

“The theme or slogan for the Festival this year is ‘Tū tama rā’, which means to stand strong and true” says West. “It is a celebration, a reminder that it is great to be Tainui, it is great to be Māori, it is great to haka and to kōrero Māori and to wear all of that with pride.”

ENDS

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