Kerikeri’s world-class events facility, the Turner Centre, turns 20

Turner Centre general manager Gerry Paul. Photo / Peter de Graaf, RNZ

By Peter de Graaf of RNZ

Twenty years ago a dream of building a world-class performing arts centre became reality in a small Far North town.

But how did Kerikeri end up with a venue the envy of cities many times its size?

Gerry Paul, the current general manager, recalled his surprise when he first saw the Turner Centre.

It was 2017 and he was a travelling musician on tour with singer-songwriter Mel Parsons.

“I remember driving into Kerikeri, what I thought was a reasonably small town, and seeing this massive events centre. And I was like, ‘Wow, these guys are lucky’. Little did I know a few years later I’d be up here running the place. Careful what you wish for, eh?”

While that initial surprise may have worn off after three years in the job – following a stint running Wellington’s popular CubaDupa festival – Paul said he still found it remarkable.

“For a town under 10,000 people, to have a 400-seat theatre and an event centre that can accommodate 1000 people is just amazing. It’s probably one of the very few towns around the world that [has] a facility of this size for the population.”

With the Turner Centre widely regarded as the best performing arts venue north of Auckland, many touring groups bypassed Whangārei and headed straight for little Kerikeri instead.

“It’s meant that we’ve had access to performances that you would never otherwise get in a small town. The capability of the stage and the capacity of the fly tower and the rigging system means we can bring up the likes of the Royal New Zealand Ballet or the [New Zealand] Symphony Orchestra.”

The Kerikeri-based Northern Dance Academy perform The Nutcracker in 2015. Photo / Peter de Graaf

The other thing that made the Turner Centre unusual was that it was planned and paid for by locals, not by the council or Government.

“That’s a big part of the Turner Centre story. The whole building was built and fundraised by the community. So there’s a real investment in the place, and that’s why we see it so well attended.”

The dream began in the 1970s when arts enthusiasts John Dalton and Doug Turner were putting on shows in the Memorial Hall, a possum-infested former fruit-packing shed.

As the population and interest in the arts grew in the 1980s, they decided something bigger and better was needed.

Doug Turner in 2011. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Aided by fellow volunteers, they spent the next two decades planning, lobbying, cajoling and fundraising.

What was initially known as The Centre at Kerikeri was opened on August 5, 2005, by Prime Minister at the time, Helen Clark.

Its bold design, by local architect Martyn Evans, included a distinctive swooping roof to create space for stage machinery.

The roof also gave the centre its early nickname, “the ski ramp”.

John Dalton died in 2012, followed by Doug Turner just late last year.

The venue was renamed the Turner Centre in 2011; the main auditorium had already been named after Dalton.

The centre's distinctive roof led to its nickname, "the ski ramp". Photo / Peter de Graaf, RNZ

Turner’s daughter, Susan Corbett, said her father would have loved to see this weekend’s 20th anniversary show.

“He would have thought it was absolutely wonderful. And he’d be very pleased to see that everything that he and John dreamt about all those years ago has come to fruition, and is still happening – and in very exciting ways with Gerry keeping things moving on.”

Corbett said her parents owned Kerikeri’s Cathay Cinema for 35 years.

They would host art exhibitions and plays at the cinema before joining Dalton organising shows in the Memorial Hall.

Corbett said their legacy showed the value of dreaming big.

“Why not dream big? And it’s just as well they did, because we probably wouldn’t be able to afford it today. Their dream has happened, and the community has got this wonderful asset because of it.”

A scene from Kerikeri Theatre Company’s The Sound of Music in 2021. Photo / Peter de Graaf

In total, building the two stages of the Turner Centre – The Plaza event centre was completed in 2012 – cost around $20 million.

Gerry Paul said a commercial building expert had told him building the same venue today would cost more than $100m.

Operating a large venue in a small town was not without its problems, however.

In 2024, with rising maintenance costs and the after-effects of the Covid pandemic threatening to overwhelm the Kerikeri Civic Trust, the Far North District Council took over ownership of the building.

The trust was still responsible for equipment, staff and programming.

In the past year, Paul said the centre had been used by 43,000 people, had 558 bookings and given away 5000 free event tickets to youth.

A shift since 2022 towards greater inclusion had included a series of “pay what you can” events and initiatives such as community kapa haka.

Bay of Islands College cultural group Te Roopu o Pewhairangi perform at the Turner Centre’s 10th anniversary celebration in 2015. Photo / Peter de Graaf

John Oszajca, a US-born actor and singer-songwriter who now lived in Kerikeri, said the town was “incredible lucky” to have a venue like the Turner Centre.

Now the president of Kerikeri Theatre Company, Oszajca said he had performed at the centre as a musician and actor, as well as bringing plays to life on the stage.

One of his personal highlights was co-producing the musical Little Shop of Horrors in 2024.

He said the venue had become a second home to him.

“I think having high-calibre performing arts, which you couldn’t have without a venue like this, makes the quality of life notably better. It’s one thing to live in a beautiful town. It’s another thing to live in a beautiful town that has amenities, and it’s another thing again to live in a town that offers inspiration to the people that live there, both as artists and as patrons.”

The centre had also served as a springboard for young performers who had gone on to forge careers in the arts.

One of those hoping to follow in their footsteps is 17-year-old Jack Laird, a Year 13 student at Kerikeri High.

Laird had just played the part of Scuttle the Seagull in The Little Mermaid; this Saturday he would be one of more than 100 performers taking part in the centre’s 20th anniversary show.

On this occasion he would be playing drums for hard rock band Bandwidth Riot, winners of the recent Far North Smokefreerockquest.

Having a venue like the Turner Centre meant a lot to Kerikeri youth, he said.

“It’s so nice to have that venue, that outlet, to be creative and just give us a voice. I don’t know what we’d do without the Turner Centre.”

Also performing in Saturday night’s anniversary show would be the Bay of Islands Singers, Kerikeri Theatre Company, Taylah Barker from Fly My Pretties, a duo from Americana folk band T Bone, local rocker Merv Pinny and Ngāti Rehia Community Kapa Haka, with local legend Troy Kingi the headline act.

- RNZ