Festival time in Christchurch New Zealand.

New Zealand Cup and Show Week is just a month away (8^th – 16^th November) and, as well as all the favourite action, several exciting new events have been added to this year’s nine-day festival.

I'll be at the street party in the ReStart mall ... will I see you there?

The info I was sent says ....

Christchurch City Council Events Development Manager, Richard Attwood says New Zealand Cup and Show Week promises to deliver the racing, fashion, entertainment and country atmosphere that makes Canterbury Anniversary the best week of the year in Christchurch.

“This is a wonderful time for locals, new residents and out-of-town visitors to celebrate how creative and exciting Christchurch has become. We have a full week of events guaranteed to get everyone out and about,” Mr Attwood says.

New official events are:

• ·         A free street party in Re:START mall to launch the week on Friday evening, 8 November
• ·         A-League football with the Wellington Phoenix playing the Perth Glory at AMI Stadium on Saturday, 9 November
• ·         Urban Assault, a fun challenge 5km obstacle course around the city centre on Sunday, 10 November
• ·         Breast Cancer Research Trust’s first Fashion for a Cure charity event at the Transitional Cardboard Cathedral on Monday, 11 November.

 read more 

Is Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, the music capital of the region?

SARAWAK HOSTING ANOTHER MUSIC ADVENTURE

Asia Music Festival will feature musicians from India, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Brunei and Malaysia that will perform over the 2-days festival.

As I sit down to write about the Rainforest World Music Festival in Kutching, Sarawak, (Malaysian Borneo) on my travel blog I receive this information about another music festival set to take the stage in October ... seems this state is becoming the music capital of Malaysia, if not Asia - so passing it on.

MIRI, Thursday – Asia Music Festival, another celebration of music is set to take centre stage in Miri, Sarawak this coming October with almost full line-up for the said event already confirmed.

The whole host of electrifying eclectic mix of live music will spread over two days, where the event will run from 4-5 October at Eastwood Valley Golf & Country Club, 5km from Miri city centre.

The event is set to become another iconic music festival for Sarawak after the success of Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) held in Kuching city and Borneo Jazz held in Miri. Sarawak Tourism Board will bring together several key musicians from India, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, Brunei as well as Malaysia to this inaugural event.

“This is another event the Board has created to attract visitors to the resort city of Miri. With this we hope that visitors from our neighbouring countries, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and our fellow Malaysians will come for 2 days of fun and music.” said Dato’ Rashid Khan, CEO, Sarawak Tourism Board. The Board looks forward to introduce this new event with its objective of attracting the Asian expatriate community working in neighbouring country like Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and the region to come and celebrate the music while visiting the destination. The atmosphere is planned to be that of a carnival as apart from the night shows, there will also be a fun event starting in the afternoon with lots of food, fun and games.

The Board is also proud to continue its successful internship and volunteer program, which was initiated in past events like the Rainforest World Music Festival. Through this program, the Board will provide a unique learning experience for the volunteers and interns whilst at the same time being exposed to the product experiences of Sarawak’s culture, nature and adventure.

STB will also continue to collaborate with Universities and Colleges as part of an industry advisory platform and to undertake this initiative as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program.

Asia Music Festival promises an extraordinary weekend of fun, music and more, within the greeneries and fresh air of the countryside at the brand new musical venue, Eastwood Valley Golf & Country Club. “This is an inspiring opportunity for everyone to come together and experience the adventure of yet another music festival” reiterated Dato’ Rashid Khan.

Mixture of live music will be featured throughout two days event and will include a mix-genre of music from national, regional and local talent. The initial line-up of performers initiated by Sarawak Tourism Board includes Antoney Dassan Yen Party (India), The Foxy Girls (Indonesia), Bembol Rockers (Philippines), V.Star Band (Korea), Boy Thai Band (Thailand), Soesah Tidoer (Indonesia), Fakhrul Razi (Brunei) and several Malaysian bands.

Based on the success of the Rainforest World Music Festival and the Borneo Jazz, Sarawak Tourism Board is confident that the inaugural Asia Music Festival will thrill the crowds when it makes its debut next month.

The Press Christchurch Writers Festival

It’s not as big as those in the United Kingdom, the USA, or even our down-under neighbour, five-times-bigger-than us, Australia: but we love it.
What is it we love? It’s our book festival. http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/

Fiona Farrell, Steven Eldred-Grigg, Gavin Bishop, Keri Hulme and Margaret Mahy, Bernadette Hall, – just some of our current local writers – add these very early Cantabrian writers; Charlotte Godley, James FitzGerald, Sarah Courage, Lady Barker, and Samuel Butler, and it’s obvious we have a long legacy of literary tradition in Christchurch.

Gordon Ogilvie says our earliest colonists carried libraries, instruments and paints, along with plans for a school and university, over the Port Hills and started a newspaper and library within a decade of arriving. He also says our forbears “established a robust literary tradition in Canterbury, particularly in non-fiction and poetry. From the 1930s to the early 1950s, during Denis Glover's association with The Caxton Press, Christchurch was indisputably the focal point of New Zealand's artistic life. The town's cultural and literary importance continues to this day.” http://www.authors.org.nz/

After the last festival (06) the media said the programme was superb: the NZ Listener’s Arts Editor Phillip Mathews commended the range and composition of the panel sessions while the Sunday Star Times published a full feature on Poetry Idol, a first-of-its-kind competition in NZ; and Radio NZ recorded sessions for National Radio, saying ‘the Christchurch festival is now firmly on the nations literary map.’

Originally an annual event, this festival is now split with a major spring festival on even years, and on odd years, Christchurch Writers Day.
Both these events fit perfectly with the annual New Zealand Book Month whose website says ‘Kiwis are highly literate and recent surveys show that many of us wouldn’t think about relaxing without a good book. But we want more of those books to be ones that have been written by New Zealand writers. We want to celebrate and showcase the brilliant writing talent we have, to support new and upcoming writers in our country, to tap into the pride we feel in our literary landscape and show you that whatever your taste, there’s a fantastic New Zealand book for you.’

Our Christchurch Writers Day (next one 2009) and the Christchurch Press Writers Festival (2010) supports not only the fabulous international writers who attend the festival but also the many fantastic, internationally acclaimed, writers we have in our region.

Check out http://beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/ re Grahams views on the festival.