Pasifika Festival

This is the confident response from Minister of Health David Clark after being asked if events like Pasifika and Polyfest should still go ahead, despite the announcement of New Zealand's first COVID-19 coronavirus case.

He says, "we're confident at this stage the chance of any spread into the community is very low, as long as people take the sensible precautions".

Clark says "if anyone is feeling unwell they shouldn't go to a big public event" and they should self-isolate. 

Festival director Torise Flay says the festival stage will complement the programmes that the 11 Pasifika Villages are providing.

She said, there will be a new feature, the Festival stage, that will feature headline acts performing on Saturday and Sunday.

"Also new to the programme is Pasifika Strong that will include Pasifika Strong, Pasifika strength athletes that'll be represented in five different Pacific islands."

Pasifika Festival at Western Springs in Auckland takes place March 14 and 15.

Festival organisers this year are wanting to focus the two-day event on connecting with village co-ordinators and Pacific communities.

Twenty six years ago the festival began as a joint initiative between community leaders and the council to bring Pasifika communities together.

It is also an opportunity to celebrate and share Pacific Island cultures with the wider Auckland community.

The event now attracts over 60,000 visitors over the two day festival.

Organisers of Pasifika Festival, held in Auckland, want to focus the two-day event on re-connecting with grassroots this year.

The event is one of the biggest Pacific cultural festival of its kind in the world and nurturing all those involved such as the village co-ordinators and Pacific communities is vital.

Event producer Torise Flay said that is her goal for 2018 as well as paying close attention to what festival-goers love about Pasifika Festival and what works well.

The aim is to help Pacific exporters promote their products to the New Zealand market.

Pacific Trade Invest New Zealand Trade Development Manager, Joe Fuavao, said around 40 companies from eleven Pacific countries will be taking part.

Mr Fuavao said the main object for the companies at the festival is to test their products to New Zealand consumers and gauge an immediate response.

Pacific Trade Invest (PTI) NZ is working in association with Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), an organisation of the Auckland Council, to create the Pacific Hub that will host exporting companies from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.

Though PTI has hosted Pacific companies at Pasifika since 2016, stalls of PTI-hosted companies tended to be scattered across the ‘villages’ throughout the sprawling Western Springs property.

Hundreds attended the event on the waterfront's Odlin Plaza, where Pacific food and hand-made crafts were sold and community groups performed.

Celebrations ended with performances from award-winning Niuean artist Tommy Nee and internationally-known reggae star, George Veikoso, also known as Fiji. 

The festival was MC'ed by Tofiga Fepulea'i from the comedy duo the Laughing Samoans.

It will be held at Odlins Plaza on the waterfront and feature performances by traditional and contemporary Pacific artists.

There will also be traditional pacific food, including a Pacific Island Cook-Off and a range of family-friendly activities.

The festival will be MCed by Tofiga Fepulea'i a former member of the comedy duo the Laughing Samoans.

The Wellington council says it is an opportunity for all Pacific people to celebrate and share their knowledge, values and beliefs.

The Wellington Pasifika Festival runs from 12 noon until 6pm.

Leilani Sio got the idea rolling with an online boosted campaign to help fund their involvement in next month's festival, receiving just over $2500 from donors, including Green MP Jan Logie.

Sio says the Pacific rainbow community has been absent in the big Pacific festivals for too long.

"I just had the idea that I think it would be important to actually participate in a Pasifika festival. They've been happening for more than two decades around Aotearoa and one thing that stuck out was the lack of representation as far as Rainbow Pasifika goes."

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