Festival celebrates arts, environment
A three-day festival which wrapped up with a night of drumming and dancing at Matauri Bay on Sunday aimed to bring people together from all over Northland with common interests in creativity and the environment. The fourth annual Unite Festival, held at the ‘‘Peace of Paradise’’ property of Liz and Jonathan Russell, featured music from medieval to modern, African drumming, belly dancing, creative workshops for kids, shared meals, healing sessions, discussions on food forests and Northland’s threatened native forests, and cooling off in the creek when the heat got too much. Dargaville’s Circus Kumarani, at the festival for the first time, ran workshops on acrobatics, juggling and aerial silk. Organiser Liz Russell aims to use the event as the seed for an upcoming dance/theatre production on the theme of Northland in the year 2116. Photos by Peter de Graaf.
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