Festival to give RWC visitors authentic NZ experience

BY KIM KNIGHT

While Auckland dithers over party central, in a building opposite the Beehive, Briony Ellis is, simply, planning the party.

Six weeks of it. The first nationwide festival to coincide with a Rugby World Cup.

Officially launched next Thursday, the festival – made up of around 1000 individual events – has been budgeted at $35 million.

Frankly, that's a lot of sausage rolls.

"We have the opportunity to create a countrywide legacy," says Ellis, festival director. "That so-called unforgettable experience people will talk about when they get home."

In Bluff, oysters are being grown out of season. On the South Island's West Coast, a region-wide whitebait scoff is planned. There will be sheep shearing, wood chopping and pig hunting. The World of Wearable Arts show will be extended by a week. The Auckland International Boat Show is shifting from March to September. Nelson will stage a re-enactment of the country's first ever rugby game. Gareth Farr is composing something special for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

And that's just the stuff Ellis could talk about last week.

She's sitting in a meeting room at the Ministry of Economic Development. A poster girl for the provinces, with a chiffon scarf round her neck and teal and lemon Argyle criss-crosses across her tights.

Up to 85,000 visitor "arrivals" (the wording takes into account Australians, who may fly the ditch several times during the tournament) are expected during the September 9-October 23 Rugby World Cup.

"They will be tourists during the week and rugby supporters on the weekends," says a tourism research report released by government in March. "Visitors will want an authentic New Zealand experience."

Relay Ellis a possibly apocryphal tale about one province's historic attempt to find an authentic slogan ("The West Coast: F--- Off") and she just laughs. "I quite like that ... cantankerous Irish gold diggers came and settled that part of the world, and their blood still runs through the veins of those West Coasters."

The Rugby World Cup festival, says Ellis, is about telling New Zealand like it is. "It's about who we are and what we are and it's not about being something we can't deliver on."

According to a recent press release, the event will "go beyond the 23 centres hosting teams and matches to include every part of the country bringing to life New Zealand's promised stadium of 4 million".

"You know when you're in a job you love," says Ellis, "and you realise that everything you've ever done has brought you there? I definitely have that with this job."

It's summer, sometime in the 1970s. In the back of the family wagon, a teenage Ellis is fighting car sickness and listening to her mother read out loud from Diana and Jeremy Pope's Mobil guide to the South Island – stories, histories and anecdotes. The elder Ellises were determined their children should understand this country.

"My first job was working for the students arts council, the organisation responsible for orientation tours, capping tours, arts and cultural events. Don McGlashan and Harry Sinclair's first show with the Front Lawn was our commission." Ellis went on to work for Christchurch and Wellington's international arts festivals. Most recently, she co-ordinated the raising of $9m for the Sir Peter Blake tribute based at the Voyager NZ Maritime Museum in Auckland.

"Growing up, I wanted to be an arts administrator. I didn't even really know what that meant. Mum said `that means you're going to run the Sydney Opera House' – because that was her favourite buildng in the whole world." Today? "Since then, festivals have been born. Running a venue is one thing. The fun stuff is what you give people."

The festival emerged from the original world cup bid, put together by government and the New Zealand Rugby Union. Surveys show having a cultural experience is a travel decision-making factor for one-third of traditional visitors to this country – with strongest demand from women, people aged over 45, North Americans and Germans.

Ellis says the festival audience will extend to locals. "There are a lot of people who can live in New Zealand their whole lives and not see one island or the other. I really want this festival to be a compelling reason to think differently and to get out there and hit the road."

When the Sunday Star-Times asked Rugby New Zealand 2011 for demographic data on the "average" world cup visitor, no material arrived before deadline. Ellis says such statistics are, to a degree, meaningless in the Kiwi context. "It's really hard to extrapolate [from other tournaments] because we are just so far away, and we are a bit of a bucket list destination for overseas visitors."

One report from the Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry of Tourism, revealed 10-15% of United Kingdom travellers to the 2005 British Lions tour were planning to come here anyway – they just shifted travel dates to coincide with games.

It's anticipated that next year, some expat New Zealanders will bring forward their traditional Christmas visit to coincide with the world cup. However, at no stage of the tournament do officials expect visitor numbers to exceed this country's normal February-March tourism peaks (on February 15, 2008, for example, there were more than 193,000 international visitors on the ground).

Officials are working hard to dispel the perception New Zealand will be "full" for the world cup. The festival, says Ellis, will play a part by taking the pressure off main centres between matches – tourists might attend a ring of seafood festivals around the South Island, for example, or plan a car enthusiast's itinerary that takes in Manukau's "Full Throttle" and various vehicle museums.

"The die-hard Rugby World Cup follower will come with very little expectation of what their between match experience is going to be about... they might come looking for the tournament, but we want them to go remembering the experiences and the people."

Up to $25m worth of festival activity will be generated by local authorities and independent producer investment. Another $9.48m of Lotteries funding is up for grabs, with applications closing on September 17. Last week, said Ellis, "they had received about four – but there will be hundreds by the closing date".

Some centres, she says, may need just $5000 to make an event happen. Others are talking millions. "You could put on a great big theatrical spectacle outside, with fireworks and big screens, and an amazing line-up of international rock bands and you'd be spending that in seconds," she says. Cryptically.

Watch this web space. Next Thursday, one year out from the world cup, the festival will have an official name and a fuller programme of events. If you want to escape the rugby, you may have to go to Stewart Island – right now, says Ellis, it's one of the few areas where no specific events are planned. "And that's a challenge to Stewart Islanders!"

This, she repeats, has never been done before. "There has never been a co-ordinated festival before around the Rugby World Cup." And that, she says, is part of the authentic New Zealand experience. "This is bigger than us? OK. Give it here. We'll do it."

More information: www.nz2011.govt.nz

- © Fairfax NZ News