A total of 65 shows including seven international acts have been secured for this year’s Nelson Arts Festival, making it the biggest line up to date.

The 2015 programme launched in August revealed the smorgasbord of national and global talent that is set to descend on Nelson during the Festival, which runs from Wednesday 14 October to Monday 26 October.

The Nelson Arts Festival is the sunshine capital’s annual celebration of creativity in all its forms, with some of the best theatre, dance, comedy, music, writers’ talks, and community events the country can offer.

Highlights of this year’s Festival include:

• The New Zealand debut of Australian company Casus Circus’s new work Finding the Silence.
• International physical theatre show Leo (pictured) that has toured the globe from Berlin to London, and Moscow to Shanghai.
• Musical crowd pleasers SJD & The Black Quartet, Sam Manzanza & the Afrobeat Band, and Trinity Roots with their Irish friends.
• A strong comedic contingent including Penny Ashton, Michele A’Court, Arthur Meek and Barnie Duncan.
• American jazz legend David Friesen, winner at the acclaimed Monterey Jazz Festival.
• Energetic hip hop with World Championship silver medallists in Out of the Box.
• A raft of celebrated New Zealand writers including Charlotte Grimshaw, Patricia Grace, Gavin Bishop, filmmaker Geoff Murphy.
• The line up also includes almost a third of locally produced content including The Billboard Project where four local and two visiting artists will create works of art beside the Maitai River and electronic based music trio Neon performing at the Playhouse Cafe.

Councillor Gaile Noonan says the Council is thrilled to put on such a much-loved arts event for Nelsonians and visitors to the region that continues to grow and attract new audiences each year.

“We are really spoilt to have such a wonderful line up of high calibre talent from far flung places of the globe and right here in Nelson to choose from,” she says.

“The Festival brings our community together to celebrate creativity in all its forms like no other event, creating a real buzz in the city. I encourage everyone to take a look at the Festival website and start booking up their tickets so they don’t miss out!” she says.

Festival team leader Axel de Maupeou says this year the Festival is spreading its wings into a range of venues around town.

“The Festival will continue to be based at Founders Heritage Park, dressed up in a green jungle theme, but we’re also using a number of new venues for the first time like the Nelson Musical Theatre, The Freehouse Yurt and even local cafe River Kitchen.

“We will also be back at the Refinery Artspace, The Theatre Royal and The Boathouse, where the Festival appeared in its early days. Collaborative projects involving secondary students and NMIT will also allow a greater participation of our youth. Ultimately this year the Festival is going to be hard to miss with its large presence around the town,” he says.

The famous Masked Parade is back better than ever three days into the Festival on Friday 16 October where you will see thousands of young and old parading through central Nelson in impressive mask creations themed around The World of Books. The parade is immediately followed by the More FM Carnivale celebrations, a free event on Trafalgar and Hardy Streets the same night with street performances, food stalls and great bands.

The full festival programme is available at Nelsonartsfestival. You can also grab a hard copy from Nelson City Council’s Customer Service Centre, Theatre Royal, libraries, retailers, cafes and key visitor outlets in the region.

Media Release: Nelson Arts Festival