Creative festival to burn with passion

Festival-goers prepare to burn an effigy in a riverside Rangitikei paddock. PHOTO/ SUPPLIED

Wyrd is the word for an event set to take place near Hunterville for the second time next year.

Wyrd is a Norse and Anglo-Saxon word about the way everything in the universe is intricately connected, and it will influence the kind of art brought to the non-profit Kiwiburn festival in January.

It's a festival of community, art and self-expression that ends with the burning of a gigantic effigy on terraces adjoining the Rangitikei River, media liaison person Shelley Watson said. It is based on "radical self-reliance" and participation.

More than 800 people went to Kiwiburn last January. They included artists and musicians. The effigy made of willow branches was built by Nicholas Lealand, who is from Christchurch, and his team.

Local people are encouraged to come to the festival. Last year security was provided by Hunterville and Taihape volunteer firefighters. Kiwiburn also donated $2000 worth of native trees to the Hunterville Lion's Club for planting in Queen's Park, to offset carbon emissions.

Next year's festival is at the same remote rural place, from January 21 to 26. Those who come to Kiwiburn can create a theme camp or an installation, volunteer to help set up, offer items others might need, loan out equipment and help get other Kiwiburners get to the event.

"It's a collective experience, everybody contributes, everybody pays. There are no paid performers at the event, there are no spectators, and what is shared are the passions and dreams of those who gift them," Miss Watson said.

The "wyrd" theme will influence the kinds of art people bring, as well as the "man" that is burned.

Tickets for the festival are sold online, and people can apply for a grant toward their art and music contribution.

The event was inspired by the annual Burning Man Festival in the United States. It began on a California beach and has now moved to the Nevada desert.

The New Zealand event started small at the top of the South Island. It moved to a domain near Mangakino in 2007, with 145 people. It moved to Rangitikei earlier this year.