Some thoughts on the Auckland Arts Festival

With a week’s worth of perspective, some observations on this year’s Auckland Arts Festival – and what a festival means in 2024.

18 days, dozens of events, hundreds of artists, thousands of audience members. Te Ahurei Toi O Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival wraps up for another year. How you experience an arts festival can vary wildly. Maybe you experienced it as just one show that you were excited for. Maybe you experienced it as a smattering of appetisers, picking a few shows you might like. Maybe you experienced it as intended – a festival of art, rushing from show to show, chattering away about each show, clutching plastic cups and juggling tickets. Or maybe you didn’t experience it at all, and the 18 days passed completely unbothered by art at all.

I’m going to try to sum up all of these experiences here, from the complete arts festival completionist who needs to have an opinion on every single show, to the agnostic, who experiences the festival as something that takes up central city parking for three weeks out of every year. Both ends of this spectrum are valid – and important.