Festival of Cultures 2009

Yet again the Festival of Cultures ‘’rocked’’.

There were a record number of Cultural Food and Craft Stalls and also attendees at the World Food, Craft and Music Fair. Alongside our colourful and talented local performing groups were popular groups such as the Mamaku Project, who linked people, landscapes and languages with their unique and festive styles of music. Wellington’s Legacy Hip Hop group also proved to be a very popular choice especially with the younger members of the community and drew large crowds.

The Ethnic Council ran a "Top Cultural Stall" Competition this year for the first. This attracted great interest and stallholders made a effort to make their stalls interactive and interesting to the public. The Iranian stall won the day with an excellent display of their country and cultural – well done!

For the first time the Festival had a cultural soccer tournament – Ethkick 09. Football is a wonderful way to cross the barriers in our ever smaller world. It certainly proved to be popular and enjoyed by all who participated and were spectators. The Ethkick organisers did a wonderful job and hopefully there will be a chance to compete again next year.

During the week that followed the World Food, Craft and Music Fair there was hilarious  theatre at The Globe with "Once Were Samoans". Those who could 'handle the jandal' had a great time!! Also at The Regent the Festival presented some vibrant New Zealand music with Moana and The Tribe.

Te Manawa and The Library were again wonderful associates of the Festival offering an education programme, lunchtime cultural music concerts and were also the main hosts for the photography exhibition – "Many Ways to say Hello". The talks hosted by the Palmerston North City Library were well patronised especially Roger Clausen who returned to the Festival this year with his accounts of his "Travels around My Bike – Part 2". This time Roger had visited the 'Top of the World and covered 18,000km on his motorbike.

The City is already planning and looking forward to 2010. The date for the World, Food, Craft and Music Fair is 27 March 2010. Earlybird Registration forms will be available on-line this year to community groups only from September 2009. If you are a commercial group there is no Earlybird Registration price available to you although you can still register in September. Please note all groups registering for this event must have a CULTURAL theme and/or focus, this must be stated clearly on your registration form.

Please sign up for the Festival newsletter. If your community group has a story or event coming up that you would like distributed please send through to the website link or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Lancewood Event Management