Kāpiti Coast District Council’s Arts Sustainability Fund backs new book festival

Writers Practice director and author Kirsten Le Harivel.

A new annual festival in Kāpiti Coast will appeal to readers, writers and book lovers alike.

The Kāpiti Festival of Books, funded through a Kāpiti Coast District Council grant and created by writing programme provider Writers Practice, will launch in August 2025.

The programme has received a three-year grant, with $12,000 allocated to it for the first year through Kāpiti Coast District Council’s arts sustainability fund.

Kāpiti Coast District Council creativity and culture manager Sonja Williams said the festival will become self-supporting over the next two to three years and has the potential to grow into a major annual arts activity, attracting locals and visitors alike.

“We see this as becoming a cornerstone arts event and major visitor attraction and contributor to the Kāpiti Coast’s reputation as an arts destination.”

She said the Kāpiti Coast is home to many avid readers.

“We also have numerous talented fiction and non-fiction writers living here, so we think there’s huge potential for this project to showcase and celebrate local and national literary endeavours in the widest sense. A Kāpiti Festival of Books is a wonderful way to promote literacy in our district and instil the enjoyment of storytelling through reading, writing, live narration, and listening.”

Writers Practice director and author Kirsten Le Harivel said the Kāpiti Festival of Books will be a fun, inclusive and accessible collection of book and story-related experiences across the rohe.

“We envisage activities could range from community storytelling to book launches, performance poetry to literary pub quizzes, writing workshops to events hosting local talent and celebrated writers from Aotearoa and overseas.”

The council’s arts sustainability fund will open again in April 2025 for projects starting from July 1, 2025.

Previous recipients include the Ōtaki Pottery Club for the Matariki Star Glaze festival; Brigid O’Shaughnessy to set up the Beachside Harmony barbershop chorus; Phill Simmonds to establish the Raumati South Community Orchestra as an all-inclusive, all-age, all-instrument 50-strong village music group; and Toi Mahara/Te Wananga ki Raukawa for collaborative project “Kia Emiemi”.