A quarter century of Tempo, and other news

Those who wanted to attend the opening gala of the very first Tempo° dance festival on Halloween 2003 had to book their tickets by phone (09 307 5000). The programme, with a red and yellow colour theme throughout, promised audiences would “feel the heat”. There were performances at Auckland Town Hall, the newly opened TAPAC, a public lecture, a dance writing workshop, and free dance workshops in Celtic Dance, tap, swing, hip-hop, Mika Haka, and more. The festival happened again in 2004, took a break in 2005 due to a change in artistic director, and has continued almost-annually since. 

This October marks 25 years of Tempo, but it's a celebration coming at a strange time. The festival did not receive any funding in the latest CNZ AOG round, though CNZ has been the core funder for a number of years. In the previous funding system, Tempo was a Kahikatea organisation, and received over $165,000 per year from 2023 to 2025. Despite this fiscal hole, the festival says its commitment to independent dance artists in Aotearoa is unchanged, as is the belief that their work deserves to be seen, and that they are already working through other pathways. Crowdfunding appears to be a piece of the puzzle, with a $30,000 Boosted campaign already underway. 

Despite that drama, all the focus now is on this year’s festival, with just two months to go. The programme was launched on Tuesday night at Q Theatre, and seems to promise many new experiences with rebellious and boundary-breaking work from top dance practitioners. New artistic director and festival producer Zanetti revealed the festival’s “north star” in their announcement on the night as being “Aotearoa and the Asia Pacific are radically transformed by brazen, visceral and rebellious dance – one body at a time.” It's their first programme for Tempo, and there’s an energy and fearlessness in their curation. “Dance and being in our bodies is the antidote to today’s challenges,” says Zanetti. “Nothing enforces that for me more than seeing the world-renowned dance creatives we have here in Aotearoa.” They say that dance brings joy, community and transformation.

There’s plenty of camp, in a takatāpui rebirth of the Village People and a Prowl club night; there’s pieces that explore the cityscape (Tōrua by MOTH, Fitting In, EXHAUST); there’s works that push the boundaries of genre (Off Axis, Natural Basic) and that push dance, the body, and our notions of being one (everything). My biggest surprise, when looking at the programme, was just how much of it is free to attend – about a quarter of the programme. What isn’t free is very reasonably priced. For practitioners, there’s a performance lab and workshops, plus fun nerdy stuff like a film night and celebration of a yet-to-be-announced contributor. 

Throughout its 25 years, Tempo has shaped the landscape of dance in Aotearoa. A quick scan through the archive of its programmes, posters and other ephemera, sees names like Atamira Dance Collective, Douglas Wright, Pointy Dog, Malia Johnston, Michael Parmenter, Sarah Foster-Sproull, Cat Ruka, Kate McIntosh and Jo Randerson right from the early years. The festival continues this tradition, with a focus on creating space for artists to develop, test, and share ambitious and boundary-breaking work. Long may it thrive!

Music journalism still exists

There’s been a bit of hoo-ha online around one person claiming to be the last music journalist in NZ. This click-baity statement is obviously not true and incredibly rude to a whole landscape of active and amazing music journos. Conor Lochrie, who leads the NZ coverage on Rolling Stone, did the god’s work of sharing a whole bunch of them on his Instagram stories. It's now disappeared, but I jotted a few down: misheard, contributors like Chris Cudby on Under the Radar, Rosetta Stone, Newzician, Martyn Pepperell, In The Pitts, all the legends at AudioCulture, and more, so many more! (Perhaps a directory is in order?) It is very easy to be cynical and self involved, but better, I think, to acknowledge your peers and celebrate all the great things. We are also actively working on our music coverage, so check it out too!

Inaugural Festival of Design Aotearoa programme out now

The festival, which aims to celebrate how design shapes our lives, has an extensive and varied series of events from 16-25 October in our UNESCO City of Design, Whanganui, and Palmerston North. It's the kind of thing that makes you check how much annual leave you’ve got saved up, if you’re not a resident. A few events that stand out to me are: Emily Hartley-Skudder’s exhibition in Palmerston North’s beloved public toilets, CAMEO; HERE Magazine’s Open Homes series; Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery’s He Ao Āpōpō, He Ao Tea: Māori Futures exhibition; and a talk by Sam Moore on why public plantings suck (and what to do about it).

More NZ musicians join Lume, the new digital platform

Lume, a new digital platform for music made in NZ, launched earlier this year. The founders wanted to build an antithesis to streaming, a model instead functioning on fans buying “an expanded definition of the album, with extra audio made up of demos, live tracks or instrumentals. Behind-the-scenes content like photography, video or handwritten lyrics” for a one-off cost of $24.99. It takes me back to the times of CDs, when you’d listen to the whole album right the way through, and pour over the artwork and lyrics in the booklet. There really hasn’t been anything so satisfying since. For musicians the maths is good. 80% of net revenue, around ​​$13-16 of each sale, goes to rights holders. That's the equivalent of around 3,000 streams, from just one adoring fan. The library of Lumes is quickly growing, there’s Pikipiki by Geneva AM, Pet by Fur Patrol, How Love Bends by Reb Fountain, Heaven Knows What Time by Vera Allen, and more. 

Artist collecting stories about Antarctica

On a Monday morning in 1975, Christchurch technician Karl Marshall answered the phone. By Friday, he was servicing a 3M 209 Photocopier in the South Pole. Now artist Rewa Rendall is collecting stories for an installation beneath Ferrymead’s historic US Navy LC-47 aircraft this October. 

Verb Festival full programme announced

Wellington's readers and writers festival is back after a year's hiatus with new co-directors, Kate McDonald and Gabrielle Vincent. There’s 26 events, with over 50 artists involved, from 23-27 September. One I’d particularly love to attend is a conversation between Irish essayist Doireann Ní Ghríofa and our very own Noelle McCarthy, chaired by Claire Mabey. Both have recently published books with Cork's former mental asylum, Our Lady's, in the centre. I’d also jump at the chance to hear from Brannavan Gnanalingam, in conversation with Balamohan Shingade about his ninth novel, U.X.O. And you just can’t miss Asher Emanuel and Aaron Smale speaking on their incredible projects of literary narrative journalism. Would anyone care to fly me down?

Moana soundtrack sees Opetaia Foa'i joining Billion Streamers club

The Pacific Music Awards took place in Auckland on Wednesday, so it’s timely that Opetaia Foa'i – last year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award – has joined the APRA AMCOS Billion List. His song We Know The Way, from the Moana soundtrack, has amassed over one billion streams across major streaming platforms. Foa'i co-wrote the song with Lin-Manuel Miranda, coming up with the central melody and ensuring it sounded pan-Pacific by singing the first verse in Samoan, then switching to Tokelauan for the first chorus.⁠ Miranda then wrote English lyrics for the remainder of the song. ⁠

Foa'i joins around a dozen other Aotearoa Billion Streamers. Music journo and historian Gareth Shute has put together a complete list over on AudioCulture.

Hawke's Bay Arts Festival programme lands

The cats out of the bag and tickets are on sale for the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival on 8 – 18 October. Director Jade Baker says the programme has been shaped around inviting people to feel something “real” away from screens. "The Festival isn't just something you attend, it's something you feel. Some experiences just can't be translated onto a screen or summed up in words. They ask us to gather, to be present and to experience something together in real time.” There’s music, theatre, circus, comedy, dance, visual arts and shared experiences, from here and overseas. I would check out the Hawke's Bay premiere of TOITŪ Visual Sovereignty, Indian Ink's Balloon Dog, and Werewolf, with a cast fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe.

PANNZ receives funding to showcase at Edinburgh Festival 2027

The Performing Arts Network New Zealand (PANNZ) has received funding through Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage's Cultural Diplomacy International Programme (CDIP) to present a showcase of NZ performers at the Edinburgh Festival in 2027. This new PANNZ-led model aims to raise the profile of New Zealand work internationally and open doors for artists in a global market. This is one of seven projects funded through CDIP, which has awarded $1.6 million to support New Zealand artists to engage with international audiences and markets.

10-day live sculpture event coming to Ōmokoroa

Ōmokoroa Peninsula, in the Western Bay of Plenty, is set to become an open-air artist’s studio this November, with a new live sculpture event. Led by Public Art Ōmokoroa, Symposium at the Point will see ten to twelve artists create works onsite from 12 – 22 November. Committee member Linda Chalmers says, "you can talk with artists and explore the inspiration behind their works and why they have selected particular themes or materials. It is a chance to see how artworks develop over time.” An education programme will give students exposure to creative career pathways and the chance to see artists working. Participating artists will also have a small display of work showcased at the domain pavilion, available for purchase, and visitors will be able to vote towards the selection of new art for permanent placement on the Ōmokoroa Peninsula. 

A Guide to Rocks wins top prize at books awards for children and young adults

Last night the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults was held at Wellington’s Pipitea Marae, and $70,500 in prize money was awarded. Author and illustrator team Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata) have claimed the top prize, the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award, at the 2026 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for the second time. A Guide to Rocks is a beautiful book which deals with difficult feelings, and also won the BookHub Picture Book Award. 

There were six other categories. The Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction went to Dreamslinger by Graci Kim; Rachael Craw’s The Lost Saint won the Wheelers Books Award for Young Adult Fiction; Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu) received the Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction for Whenua: Māori Pūrākau of Aotearoa; The Russell Clark Award for Illustration went to Kupe and the Great Octopus of Muturangi by Mat Tait, which also won the Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for a Book Originally Written in Te Reo Māori. The translation of He Taonga te Toka by Kawata Teepa (Tūhoe, Te Whakatōhea) received the Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for a Book Translated into Te Reo Māori; and the NZSA Best First Book Award was awarded to Te Onehaumako, a young adult novella written in te reo Māori by Zeb Tamihana Nicklin (Pāhauwera, Ruapani, Tūhoe, Tāmanuhiri). 

Robert Lord Writers Cottage 2026–27 residents announced

Six writers have been awarded residencies for late 2026 and early 2027 at the historic cottage in Ōtepoti Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature, each with a project in mind. Playwright Connor Amor-Bendall will undertake focused work on a queer period drama. Novelist Tracy Farr will access key material in the Hocken Collections researching for her fourth novel. Children’s and young adult author Helen Vivienne Fletcher will develop two new play ideas. Zoë Meager will revisit a manuscript of magical realism. Poet Josiah Morgan (Kāi Tahu / Ngāti Maniapoto) will work on new poems and research toward a long-form poem entitled ‘Moa’. Fiction writer Sue Orr will work on a novel with its genesis in the generational fall-out of the illegality of homosexuality in New Zealand until 1986.

Lion Rock wins City of Melbourne Grand Prix for Best Short Film

Directed by Nick Mayow and Prisca Bouchet, Lion rock is a 16 minute short produced with Jane Campion's A Wave in the Ocean. The plot begins when a teenage boy and his mother hit something with their car – she insists it was nothing, but as the night unfolds the boy begins to doubt her story. Melbourne International Film Festival awarded the film best short film, and a $12,500 cash prize.

Courtney Johnston resigns from Te Papa

After six-and-a-half years as chief executive of national museum Te Papa, Courtney Johnston has announced her resignation. She will leave the role in October. "I stood at the front door when we closed the museum for the first Covid lockdown, and stood at the front door again when we welcomed visitors back in. I have so many indelible memories from this time," Johnston said in a statement. She says she is looking forward to recharging and exploring creative projects before a next career step, and that the position has been "a huge part of my life, personally and professionally."

Enjoy farewells longest serving board member

Seb Clarke, who joined the Enjoy Contemporary Art Space board in 2022, is stepping down. “His contributions have ensured our gallery has flourished in times of transition and change,” wrote the gallery on social media. It seems a fond farewell.

We’ve got a review of a live therapy show by fledgling critic Grace-Amelia Vernal.

It’s been four centuries and change since William Shakespeare died, and still his plays are regularly performed all around the world. Sam Brooks takes a look at the state and relevance of the bard today, checking in with a renowned scholar, an actor, and a high school teacher.

In a fresh installment of Talanoa with a Tusitala, Dani Kionasina chats to artist and graphic designer Linda Va'aelua.

Nothing juicy this week!

My inbox is open to confidants who have gossip or know about exciting things that are happening in the arts! editor@thebigidea.co.nz