TOMORROW:
Up to 100,000 punters to descend on the Newtown Festival
Bic Runga, belly dancing and bikes – if the annual Newtown Festival has one thing going for it, it’s the mix of creativity and diversity.
Between 80,000 and 100,000 people are expected to pack out the streets of central Newtown tomorrow when the festival kicks off.
By a happy accident too, the festival this year is coinciding with New Zealand’s Children’s Day – something associate director Anna Kemble Welch was keen to help celebrate.
‘‘This year, we’re trying to make it so that there are lots of really fun things for children that are free for them to enjoy.’’
From mini merry-gorounds and ferris wheels for little ones in
Arney St to bike tracks being set up around
Gordon St and even a circus hub, she said there was a line up of free events for kids of all ages.
Bike-focused charities Mechanical Tempest and Rebicycle will be setting up shop by the old Caltex station, including a ‘‘bike rodeo’’ complete with seesaws and balance boards.
A dash of Lime scooters would be added to the mix for people to have a go on, but only inside a designated space.
‘‘The point is to educate people and to try it out,’’ she said.
Out on the streets, people could wander between 14 different stages – from the Tangata Whenua stage, which would have an emphasis on te reo performances as well as hosting musician Ria Hall, to the RadioActive.fm and Coffee Supreme South Stage where Bic Runga would be crooning to the crowds in the afternoon.
‘‘It’s a happy atmosphere, that’s what we’re creating,’’ Kemble Welch said. ‘‘It comes back to the community. There’s music, there’s dance, there’s food.’’
The Newtown Festival team is well used to creating that happy atmosphere – the street fair is now on its 23rd year as a street festival, although you could argue it’s been around for 25 years – for the first couple of years, it was hosted in Carrara Park.
‘‘We just evolve a little year by year to fine tune things. What we discovered is when we grew down towards the zoo end, people would still stay at the hospital end, so now we’re putting major things down the zoo end, so people don’t get jammed in any one place.’’
With between 80,000 to 100,000 people expected to come through, a jam seemed likely, although Kemble Welch was quick to urge people to explore all the side streets and move all the way through the festival.
This year – as in others – there was also a heavy emphasis on zero waste, from reducing the use of plastics inside the festival as well as initiatives such as Wash Against Waste, where donated cutlery and crockery could be borrowed, returned and washed, ready for the next person.