Te Puke Times: Party puts the fun in town plan

DANCERS: Fairhaven School will present a series of Indian dances.

"Why have a meeting when we can have a party?" was the mantra of Te Puke Community Board members planning a review of the town's 20 year development plan.

The suggestion was enough to spark major efforts for an outstanding line-up of singers to complement displays of arts and crafts, sporting achievements from local schools and clubs as well as sales tables and information booths.

Every aspect of life in Te Puke will be on show and every style of music - from pop opera to country hoedown - will be ringing around Jubilee Park from 9am next Saturday, November 1.

Schools' Indian, Nepalese, Maori and Pasifika cultural groups will share their dances and kapa haka.

Fairhaven's Trish Hunt has developed a group of students who perform Indian dances in colourful silky costumes - with the boys doing a Bhangra dance; Year 3-4 girls a traditional dance and Year 5-6 a Bollywood-style dance. Nepalese dancers will display beautiful traditional costumes during their performance.

Dancers from Te Puke Primary will showcase their Pate Pate Pasifika style and Maketu School have a fierce young kapa haka group, which gets better every year.

Te Puke Intermediate won the hip hop section of the recent AIMS Games, and will demonstrate why they are champions.

For a change of pace, Pongakawa School's junior rock band will perform AC/DC songs as loud as possible to keep listeners awake.

Te Ranga School recently had an Art Quest and a couple of their acts will perform.

About midday, Te Puke's very own diva, Sharon Cotter, originally from Wales, will step up to the microphone. Sharon is a professional soprano and entertainer with more than 20 years' experience performing lead roles in pop opera, Broadway, musical theatre and ballads.

Some of her notable roles include Eva Peron in Evita, Anna in The King and I and Grizabella in Cats. In 2010, she sang the Welsh national anthem when Wales played the All Blacks at Hamilton and again in 2011 at Eden Park for the Rugby World Cup semi-final between Wales and France.

Geoff Mutton, from the Te Puke Country Music Club, has assembled some quality entertainers who will have you line-dancing before you know it between 12.30 and 1.30pm.

Papamoa siblings Daniel and Hannah Cosgrove were NZ Country Music Association Entertainers of the Year in 2013 and 2014 respectively. They will be ably supported by well-known locals Marion and Ronlee White, and Phil and Taylor Reha.

'Impact' is an Urban Dance crew of 11- to 13-year-olds who came third in the NZ Street Dance (BOP/Waikato) 2014 HipHop Champs and will perform at 1.30pm. They will be followed by 'Nga Wahine Toa O Tapuika me Waitaha', a group of young Maori girls who will sing.

John Espin was lead singer for Christian band Fourth Member, and will perform solo with his catchy songs. He will be followed by Jan Baker who has appeared on New Zealand's Got Talent and X-Factor with her trademark Adele and Beyonce style of singing.

During the day, the audience can check out the plans for Te Puke's next 10 years.