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Sam Scannell/Stuff
The Spiegeltent, pictured in 2019, is always a popular venue when the festival is in town.
After years of Covid-19 disruptions, Taranaki’s arts festivals are returning with Spiegel Fest kicking things off in November.
The programme from November 10-20 is the first of four festivals being run by the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust (Taft) over a two-year cycle.
In a statement, festival artistic director Megan Brown said she was excited to see the festival come to life after Covid put a stop to previous arts festivals in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
The festival lineup features five international, award-winning performers and shows, including Rebel, the David Bowie-inspired circus phenomenon, and WERK IT!, a high-energy acrobatic comedy.
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Spiegel Fest will also showcase an array of artists from across Aotearoa, including Rutene Spooner, who returns with his new show, Thoroughly Modern Māui, and Kiwi comedians Eli Matthewson and Morgana O’Reilly.
As well as performances at the main Pacific Crystal Palace Spiegeltent, the programme will see shows around the wider region, including Waitara, Hāwera and Ōpunake, Brown said.
Taft chief executive Suzanne Porter said the festival timing was perfect for the region leading into the festive season.
“We’re encouraging ticketholders to make a night of it, get out and enjoy our CBD’s hospitality,” she said.
Following on from Spiegel Fest, the four-day Right Royal Cabaret Fest will return in June 2023 and in October 2023 Taft will present ‘re:imagine’, a new ten-day festival celebrating the arts.
The festival format concludes with Winter Fest in 2024 with a complement of music, theatre and comedy alongside the popular literary programme.
Spiegel Fest is full of entertainment for all ages and Brown is encouraging ticket purchasers to add a donation to the Pay it Forward, Keep Arts Thriving programme, which will see free tickets handed out to children from low decile schools.
Since the festival launched last Thursday night, 39 donations had been made.
“That’s already 75 school children here in Taranaki who will have their festival experience paid for by our community in less than a week of the festival being on sale.”
Brown said getting a child into a theatre could change their life forever.
“It can make a theatre somewhere they want to go to in the future and that can happen at the age of five as opposed to 25 or 45.”
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