The Tauranga Arts Festival has secured globetrotting chef Peter Gordon for this year's event. Photo/The Sugar Club
The Tauranga Arts Festival has secured globetrotting chef Peter Gordon for this year's event. Photo/The Sugar Club
Tauranga Arts Festival is celebrating its second Escape! festival on June 3-6 with an early-bird ticket offer for two of the shows.
Sales will open on April 19 for an hour with renowned chef Peter Gordon and a one-man Shakespeare tribute starring Michael Hurst.
"We are breaking with tradition byputting tickets on general sale before the programme launch but we know these performances will create a buzz," says Escape! director Claire Mabey. Securing Gordon, whose new book Savour is published on May 2, is a coup, Mabey says. "He said he'd be happy to come to Tauranga if we had a festival on while he was in the country but he is such a globetrotter we thought it might never happen."
The Whanganui-born chef owns two restaurants each in London and Auckland and appears regularly on television around the world, as well as being a consultant to Air New Zealand. No Holds Bard reweaves some of Shakespeare's words and characters into a new story.
Hurst's performance has won praise for its physicality, passion and humour. A matinee will end with a Q&A session with Hurst: student tickets to this are $10.
Festival patrons and sponsors have exclusive booking options until April 18 with general sales from April 19. The full Escape! programme is revealed on April 27 with tickets to all other shows on sale the next day. Tickets from Baycourt or Ticketek (TECT discounts available).
No Holds Bard: Friday, June 3, 1pm and Saturday June 4, 8pm, $25 ($20 TECT discount) and with a group offer of $10 tickets. Peter Gordon: Saturday June 4, 11.30am, $20 ($16). Shows are at Baycourt.
