It’s almost that glor­i­ous point in Wellington’s cal­en­dar when the New Zea­l­and Fest­iv­al  (23 Feb­ru­ary – 18 March), the Per­form­ance Arcade (23–25 Feb, 1–4 March) the Pride Fest­iv­al (24 Feb­ru­ary – 10 March) and the NZ Fringe Fest­iv­al Wel­ling­ton  (2–24 March) are all on at the same time. I love it for the excit­ing mix of per­form­ances and install­a­tions we can see – loc­al per­formers on the same stages as inter­na­tion­al ones, and new­comers mix­ing it up with estab­lished prac­ti­tion­ers.

The Per­form­ance Arcade opens tonight (sneaky!) at 6pm. Lap Strap by Stef­fi Weis­mann  starts at 7:30pm. (I’m so intrigued. A wear­able tool­belt of audio equip­ment? Excel­lent.) On Fri­day there are events from lunch­time and live music from 5:30pm. The festival’s ‘spe­cial archi­tec­tur­al arrange­ment of ship­ping con­tain­ers’ provides an excit­ing space for exper­i­ment­al per­form­ance art and install­a­tions. Many of these focus on con­tex­tu­al rela­tion­ships between the per­former, the audi­ence and the space.

The New Zea­l­and Fest­iv­al opens this Fri­day night at 7pm with free, whānau-friendly Kupe a com­munity extra­vag­anza on the water­front. As waka sail into the har­bour near Tarana­ki Wharf a 1000 strong group will wel­come them with a haka that ref­er­ences the arrival of Kupe, and the two tani­wha of Wel­ling­ton Har­bour. There’s also a massed choir per­form­ing music by War­ren Max­well. (Many oth­er shows open on Fri­day night as well.) Kupe is the first in a series of events that make up A Waka Odys­sey. Part two Kupe Land­ing  is in Petone on Sat­urday when waka hourua and waka taua will land allow­ing us to get up close and per­son­al with the waka and their crews. There’ll be live music, DJs, per­form­ances, and food stalls. Part three Kupe Dream­ing  fea­tures a col­lec­tion of events cel­eb­rat­ing our place in the Pacific.

Pride Fest­iv­al wel­comes us with Out in the Park at Wait­angi Park on Sat­urday 11am – 4pm. The queer fair cel­eb­rates with free enter­tain­ment from drag queens and kings, sing­ers, dan­cers, and comedi­ans! The fest­iv­al con­cludes with the Pride Parade on Sunday 10 March. In between there are pan­els and work­shops and classes and pub­lic talks and mass and shows. Some of the shows are also fea­tur­ing as part of the NZ Fringe Fest­iv­al Wel­ling­ton.

This fest­iv­al  wel­comes all comers You can get a taste of a whole bunch of events with The Great Fringe Cab­aret Show­case on 1 March. It prom­ises a ‘night of organ­ised chaos’ which sounds like fun. There are twenty-two free events and many more for koha or low-ish cost tick­ets. (A quick note about koha shows: koha is a gift to the performer/s for the work they have put in to the show. It’s not a gold coin. It’s a bunch of gold coins. Give gen­er­ously if you can.)

What are you look­ing for­ward to?