Welling­ton Zine­fest annu­al zine mar­ket and fes­ti­val returns to Mighty Mighty this Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 17th. Now in its 6th year, Welling­ton Zine­fest is New Zealand’s longest run­ning fes­ti­val of zines.

‘Zines’ or ‘fanzines’ are self-pub­lished mag­a­zines cre­at­ed to high­light music scenes, fan­doms, activism, craft, cre­ative writ­ing or sim­ply the zinemaker’s own odd­ball obses­sions. Zine­fest brings togeth­er zine­mak­ers and oth­er inde­pen­dent pub­lish­er and musi­cians from Welling­ton and beyond to show case their work and present it to the pub­lic. The zine ethos tends to be imme­di­ate and DIY focused, with many zine avail­able for sale at as lit­tle as a gold coin, or swapped for free for oth­er zines.

As well as perus­ing zines, mem­bers of the pub­lic can join in at Zine­fest col­lab­o­ra­tive zine work­shop table. All mate­ri­als are pro­vid­ed and every­one is encour­aged to join and cre­ate a page to be com­piled into a zine. The result­ing zine is sent out to all con­trib­u­tors.

Zine mak­ers hard at work, Welling­ton Zine­fest 2011

Welling­ton City Libraries superb zine col­lec­tion is no doubt a con­tribut­ing fac­tor to Wellington’s enthu­si­as­tic zine scene. Once again the Library’s zine team will be at Zine­fest intro­duc­ing their zine lend­ing library to the pub­lic.

A ‘Best of the Fest’ is award­ed to the most out­stand­ing zine on the day. Pre­vi­ous ‘Best of the Fest’ win­ners indi­cate the high cal­i­bre of art and writ­ing that does into Welling­ton zine mak­ing. 2010 win­ner Han­nah Salmon was recent­ly award­ed the 2012 New Zealand Art Show Emerg­ing Artist Award, and last year’s win­ner 11 year old Zora Patrick was an invit­ed guest at Bun­cheon Inter­na­tion­al Com­ic Fes­ti­val in South Korea ear­li­er this year.

Welling­ton Zine­fest began in 2007 organ­ised by Kylie Buck and the Welling­ton City Libraries. Since then it has been organ­ised by a rotat­ing com­mit­tee of vol­un­teers. Inter­est has grown rapid­ly each year, with Welling­ton Zine­fest 2012 host­ing a record 45 zine stalls. The Welling­ton event has been instru­men­tal in inspir­ing zine­fests in Auck­land, Christchurch and Dunedin. The zine libraries, work­shops and class­es pop­ping up through­out New Zealand all owe some­thing to this sem­i­nal Welling­ton event.

Welling­ton Zine­fest is sup­port­ed by Welling­ton Cre­ative Com­mu­ni­ties.

Welling­ton Zine­fest 2012: Mighty Mighty (Cuba Street), Sat­ur­day Novem­ber 17, 1–5 PM