The Auckland Arts Festival was one of the first major arts events that took a a huge financial hit when Covid-19 struck.
Arts festivals usually rely on importing big budget international shows to draw in audiences and attract media attention. But, undeterred, the festival's organisers have pivoted like crazy to come up with a programme for 2021.
The theme is 'aroha', and all 70-plus events in the programme are homegrown: Artistic Director Shona McCullagh talked with Lynn Freeman about what happened to the 2020 programme back in March, and what's ahead.
Spell on You, a musical offering for the 2021 Auckland Arts Festival, with Delaney Davidson, Shayne Carter, Theia, Chris O'Connor, Nell Thomas and Jol Mulholland. Photo: Supplied.
"Sadly two out of the three weeks of the 2020 programme went, under the impact of Covid," she said.
"I had just started... and it was an incredible way to witness the superb professionalism of the team under the leadership of David Innes, coping with a real disaster, and their absolute priority to caring for the safety and security of the artists, and the audiences. Obviously everything had to be cancelled.
"[Financial it was] devastating, as you could imagine, but we were very fortunate that through the excellent fiscal management of the board, and partnership models, with Creative NZ as well, the festival has survived. And like a phoenix from the ashes we rise again to present a festival March 4 to 21st, next year."
Shona McCullagh Photo: supplied
McCullagh says it was an exciting and easy call, to make the next festival 100 percent Aotearoa.
"I made a call really early on, that it was just so unpredictable... and I thought we could spend an enormous amount of time running two programmes simultaneously, in the hope that the borders would open.
"But, I also came into the festival pre-Covid with a strong vision to really try and use this role to try to uplift New Zealand artists, and really allow our audiences to just understand how incredibly brilliant they are, and what world-class talent we have here.
"There's an absolute explosion of material; a lot of artists have been creating during lockdown. For a lot of people, lockdown was a chance to recover and replenish and perhaps finish things that they'd been working on that they just hadn't had the time to. So part of our recovery plan is to help provide opportunities for work that couldn't be presented because of Covid.
"So we've got six world premieres happening, we've got people like Anna Coddington who's just released a new album, and this will be her first concert for the new album.
"We've been very very blessed and spoiled for choice - honestly, I could have programmed three festivals with the number of artists that applied through our submission process, which was a new thing for the festival also. There's just a burgeoning amount of work and talent out there."
Taonga Moana - A Love Letter to the Oceans; part of the Auckland Arts Festival, on 6 March, 2021. Photo: Supplied.
Is any of the work pandemic themed, or have artists been keen to move their spaces away from that harsh reality?
"It's a mix of both. There are a couple of very interesting and particular projects - one is a work about a plague, that was shut down by a plague; Strasbourg 1518, a work by Lucy Marinkovich and Lucien Johnson of Borderline Ensemble," McCullugh said.
"That was originally commissioned with support from the New Zealand Festival, and had two shows in Wellington during the Festival, and got shut down [in March].
"Another example is I've got a lovely whakaaro and kōrero section of the festival - our thoughts and how we talk. One of the works is called Living with Uncertainty, because we're doing it all the time, we don't know when the borders are going to open.
"So we're partnering with Earthbeat Festival to really have a discussion about what it's like to be in this world where we can't plan the way we used to, and we have to live more or less day by day. We really wanted to bring some focus to thinking about that experience that we're going through as humans."
Will the festival feel the loss of the attention that swirls around big international names?
"I really hope that's not the case, and I can see already... people are really excited to be privileged enough to be in a venue in a live performance space.
"I think if we all reflect on our lockdown experience, the arts were a powerful way for us to experience that significant and disruptive change in our lives - we read books, we listened to music, we watched films, and artists actually were incredibly positive, and a driving force in the recovery process as well.
"So, I know people will want to honour the work our artists did to help us get through lockdown and I have a lot of faith in our ability to express our aroha for them."
The programme for the Festival is available here.
