This media release from the Festival team has the latest detail on plans.
The Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival has made some changes to its scheduled line-up. Originally planned for 16-31st October, it will now be an 11 day festival and begins on 20th October through to 31st October.
Due to the impact of Covid alert level restrictions some of the Auckland-based shows have been postponed to March next year and others will feature in the 2022 Festival at venues across Hawke’s Bay including the then newly opened Municipal Buildings.
The small but beautiful line-up of performing and visual arts during this year’s Festival is designed to go ahead in Level 2, in a socially distanced format with capped audience numbers to meet the venue and alert Level 2 requirements. With support of the artists and the venue partners, there will be additional performances scheduled to meet demand. Be Open, the Festival theme for 2021, is now more relevant than ever and an invitation for audiences to engage with the many diverse Festival offerings.
The first Visual Art offerings have started with Remembering Roy at the Hastings Community Arts Centre and the Festival team continue to inspire our rangatahi with the Furnware Ambassador programme and Festival to Schools performances in 21 schools from Wairoa to CHB proudly supported by Bruce Mactaggart.
Free family event Nuit Blanche in Napier is rescheduled for 22 January and Dream Garden in Hastings will be held at Civic Square on 5 February 2022.
The first two weekends in March will feature comedy with Urzila Carlson on Friday 4 March and great music – with Reb Fountain on Saturday 5 March and Troy Kingi & Delaney Davidson supported by Trinity Hill Wines on 6 March 2022. On 12 March, Return of the Navigator with Che Fu and the Kratez will grace the Opera House stage and is proudly supported by Wallace Development Company.
Pitsch Leiser, the Festival Director said: “I am incredibly proud of our festival team who have shown an amazing tenacity and commitment since the Delta outbreak to do everything in their powers to offer Hawke’s Bay and our artists an opportunity to perform and enjoy a great Festival programme right here in your community.
We thank all our audiences for their patience as we’ve navigated these ever changing times. And we especially thank our funders, sponsors, patrons and supporters, as their unwavering support over this period has filled us with gratitude and lifted us”.
For most of the shows that are lost to this year’s festival plans are coming together to bring these to our audiences as part of our next Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival programme scheduled from 17 to 30 October 2022.
For full details of our revised 2021 Festival programme, please visit www.hbaf.co.nz, where the updated schedule is now available.
All purchased tickets that are subject to change will be either refunded or transferred to the new dates. Ticket outlets will be in touch directly before the end of October to arrange the details of any changes.