Great variety at arts festival

Only a very picky person could find fault with the programme of shows at this year’s Bay of Islands Arts Festival.

The line-up of 22 acts and nearly 200 performers offers something to suit just about every age group or taste and includes:

• Big Day Out main stage rockers Elemeno P and Auckland hard rock act These Four Walls who released their
debut album Down Falls An Empire last year

• Nimby Opera’s The Cunning Little Vixen, a comic fairytale opera set against a stunning animated backdrop

• Co Physical Theatre’s raunchy circus-cabaret comedy Ooh Baby Baby

• The Royal New Zealand Air Force Central Band, the country’s largest and only full symphonic band

• Kiwi comedian Te Radar

• Paris-based electro-acoustic piano-keyboards duo The Dry Flies who will have a drummer and experimental instrumentalist backing them at the festival

• Kiwi eight-piece The Woolshed Sessions who combine lap-steel guitar, banjos and Maori instruments with lush vocal harmonies

• South African and South American music and an array of Argentinean instruments never seen in New Zealand

• The crazy and comical Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra

• String and choral classical musical recitals

• Contemporary dance production Evolve which features Northland Dance Academy dancers

• A variety concert featuring local artists

• A street carnival of gymnasts and stilt dancers.

- © Fairfax NZ News