Anoushka Shankar will headline the Festival Playground next year.
Anoushka Shankar will headline the Festival Playground next year.
There's a lot to get excited about in next year's Auckland Arts Festival, but the biggest news is the addition of the new Festival Playground down at Wynyard Quarter's Silo Park.
Promising to bring a true festival vibe to the event, the Festival Playground will be home to free familyevents and festival highlights, including shows by Neil Finn with the APO, India's sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar, soul superstar Lee Fields and New Zealand's legendary good-time party band Eru Dangerspiel, who will assemble his all-star band to open the Festival Playground with a celebratory performance in fine, funky fashion.
Neil Finn is set to perform at the Festival Playground.
A food pavilion in the Playground will house lots of neat treats to eat and, to make use of the park's namesake, there will even be shows performed inside the six towering silos. The gigs are called Sonic Silos and will see acts such as Jonathan Crayford and Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir perform inside the unusual, cavernous acoustic spaces.
At the heart of the Festival Playground will be a giant 400sq m House of Mirrors. This maze, which takes 40 tonnes of steel and 15 tonnes of glass to construct, has been variously described as "mesmerising", "hypnotic" and, more worryingly, "disorientating", so plan on getting lost and spending a lot of time looking at your endless reflections as you wander aimlessly seeking an exit...
Kiwi Teeks will return home to perform at the Festival Playground.
On the final day of the Festival is Whanau Day, a free family day with events, food and performances by Anika Moa and Bombay Royale.
The Arts Fest's new venue looks absolutely phenomenal and has been matched with a hugely exciting and innovative roster of performers.
It feels like the beginnings of a thrilling new era for the Auckland Arts Festival that will see it reaching and appealing to more and more people. Brilliant.
Eru Dangerspiel Neil Finn with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and special guests Emily King / Tank and the Bangas / Teeks Lee Fields and the Expressions / Jack Broadbent Anoushka Shankar The Lemon Bucket Orchestra King Krule Sonic Silos - Jonathan Crayford Sonic Silos - Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir Concert A Tribe Called Red / Tiki Taane / Ria Hall Whanau Day with Anika Moa and Bombay Royale
