Ria HallThe Stroppy Women panel from Escape! 2018, from left, Tracey Slaughter, Sue Bradford and Mary Dillon. Credit: Brydie
Photography
Tauranga Arts Festival has taken the difficult decision to cancel the Escape! Festival at Queen’s Birthday weekend – but
has seized a new opportunity to deliver ‘arts at home’, a web-based project, for the lockdown.
The festival website’s launch post on Wednesday, April 1 featured festival director and award-winning musician Ria Hall
performing ‘Aotearoa’ with Stan Walker, Troy Kingi and Maisey Rika, all of whom have Bay of Plenty connections.
“The video came out in 2014 for Māori-language Week,” Ms Hall says, “but it has such wairua (spirit) and aroha (love)
for our country that we thought it was a fitting way to start our online project.”
Audio recordings from the 2018 Escape! will be posted at midday on Wednesdays and Fridays with the first – Stroppy Women
featuring award-winning writer Tracey Slaughter, former Green MP Sue Bradford and former Tauranga City councillor Mary
Dillon – posted on Friday, April 3. Other arts-focused items will also be posted regularly
“The conversations that take place at Escape! are profound, funny and full of soul,” Ms Hall says. “We have had some of
this country’s best thinkers take the stage so we’re thrilled to be able to showcase them all over again.
“We’ll also be catching up with what some of our past guests are up to and are asking members of our festival whānau to
supply items of interest. We have quite a bit that is being produced locally through the lockdown and are so pleased
that people are responding in imaginative ways to support our project.”
Ms Hall says as soon as the first Covid-19 cases were diagnosed in New Zealand, the festival trust board and staff were
clear Escape! had to be cancelled.
“We had a first-class programme in place so that caused us some sadness for a moment or two but it was clear it couldn’t
go ahead. We all took a deep breath and then we were away working on how we might try and bring some positivity into
life in lockdown.”
See more at www.taurangafestival.co.nz , the festival’s Facebook page, on Twitter @tgafestival and Instagram. Look for the hashtag #artsathome.