The muscle behind the NZ Festival
A pair of teachers are among the large team of volunteers working behind the scenes to ensure the New Zealand Festival goes off without a hitch.
Katie Howes and Liberty van Voorthuysen have primarily been working with children through the festival’s creative learning programme, SchoolFest, which gives students the chance to experience the best the festival has to offer as well as tailor-made events.
‘‘It’s really cool that they’re taking things to the schools, it’s made it all so much more accessible for kids to be involved in the arts,’’ Howes says.
The festival role is just the start for Howes, a drama and dance teacher, with her entire year set to be dedicated to volunteering and exploring different artistic avenues.
‘‘I’m taking the year to refresh myself and focus on the arts so I thought this was a fantastic opportunity to start the year off, get back into the arts scene and see some wonderful shows at the same time,’’ she says.
‘‘I’m hoping I also meet a few people along the way that will require some post-festival help along the line but we’ll see what happens from here.’’
Volunteering is nothing new for van Voorthuysen, a primary school teacher, who has previously helped out at the New Zealand International Film Festival and Litcrawl.
‘‘It’s always such a good way to meet new people and you’re in this privileged position where you’re inside the mechanism but you don’t have a heap of responsibility.
‘‘It’s giving up your time but you get so much back,’’ she says.
So far, both women have primarily been working on A Waka Odyssey-related activities but with two more weeks of festival fun to go, they are anticipating a few more exciting roles.
‘‘It just gets busier and busier. The Waka stuff winds up and then there are a whole bunch of evening shows we get to go to with the kids,’’ Howes says.
‘‘Although, the waka have been fantastic, it’s been such a cool opportunity for the kids to actually get on board and explore them.’’
Howes’ highlight, so far, has been meeting all the artists and performers who have been ‘‘so willing’’ to share their knowledge.
‘‘It’s totally not a daunting experience at all, you are not in a scary or unknown position and you get so much from it,’’ she says.
‘‘We’re really lucky in Wellington, there’s so much going on all the time.’’
Next up for the two volunteers are roles within the Future Playground experience as well as a handful of sold out SchoolFest shows: both of which van Voorthuysen cannot wait for.
‘‘Volunteering is typically about helping other people but this is quite selfish where you just get to meet amazing people, hang out and see cool things. It’s awesome.’’