Kāeo free festival promotes pride for tamariki and rangatahi

Kāeo’s free, one-day arts festival, Ngā Purapura, returns this year on Saturday 4 March to celebrate tamariki, rangatahi and promote pride in the Bay of Islands’ town.

Expect to see activities encouraging kids and teens to get hands-on with their creativity. Family-focused events include a community picnic as well as group waiata and dancing. The festival will run between 9.30am and 2.30pm.

Organisers are describing the broad range of events available as “an explosion of sound and colour” that celebrate the rich local heritage and include workshops on drama, drawing and clay critter making. Designed with local tamariki, rangatahi and their whānau in mind, the festival showcases Kāeo town and local businesses and attracts people from all over Northland.

The festival is usually run on a shoestring by volunteers but this year organisers were granted $4373 by the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community Board to help with equipment hire, logistics and to provide for St John staff to be on-site. Funding from the Far North Creative Communities Scheme of $2,450 will support the creative activities on offer.

The festival endorses healthy food stands that operate with sustainability and zero waste practises and it is run with a code of ethics that includes kaitiakitanga (care for the environment), whanau ora (healthy lifestyles, including drug and smoke-free), and manaaki Whangaroa (promoting te reo Māori and a local cultural view).

Anyone who would like to offer a workshop, run a healthy food stall or volunteer to help out is being urged to get in touch with the community board through its Bay of Islands - Whangaroa Community Board Facebook page.

This will be the fifth time the festival has been held since 2017. The event has been cancelled in recent years due to COVID-19 restrictions.