Nelson festival plans

Nelson’s fourth festival will run for two weeks in August and include 46 exhibitions throughout the city. A street parade, including a procession by school children carrying brightly coloured banners of their own design, will begin the festival.

Ten full-time workers on a Labour Department project employment programme are organising the festival which runs from August 13 to 28. The biennial event is backed by 52500 from the Nelson Provincial Arts Council and support from local businesses and industry. The organisers want the festival to be held annually and be linked to the Australian festivals circuit to attract international guests. The dual aims of the Nelson Festival are to promote the city as a cultural and recreational centre and to encourage wider participation in arts, crafts and leisure activities.

Maori cultural groups from Nelson and Motueka will officially open the festival with a traditional welcome. An address by the Leader of • the Opposition, Mr David Lange, will follow.

An area of the city has been designated “festival square” with the permission of the City Council. Traffic will not be permitted in the area which will be festooned with banners and form a centre for lunchtime concerts. Glassblowing demonstrations, a giant chess set, a sidewalk cafe and seats and shrubs will be set up in the square. The Waitati Militia of Dunedin will parade and face a challenge for a mock battle from the Nelson Leos Club.

Exhibitions will be on show in city galleries, hotel foyers, shop fronts and public places. The Chinese, Egyptian and British Embassies have loaned works and the Israeli Embassy is

featuring the history and development of the kibbutz in a walk-in display. Events aimed at children include a “gorilla hunt,” an orchestral performance of “Carnival of the Animals” and acts by a Wellington busker and puppeteer, “Grasshopper.” • For the elderly a special matinee performance of the musical “Hot Lines” is being staged by Waimea College. The Suter Gallery, the School of Music, and the Theatre Royal will be fully utilised for exhibitions and performances. A late night festival club will be open for members to enjoy dance, drink and entertainment. Acts from outside Nelson include an Auckland theatre troupe, “Dramadillo,” and a solo-actress, Rosalie Carey. John Hore-Grenell will perform country music and the Wellington Regional Orchestra will perform a programme of Beethoven with

a Russian violinist, Nelli Shkolnikova.

Comedy will come from Steve Thomas and Auckland’s Brenda Kendall, one of New Zealand’s few standup women comics, and the Wellington group “Singing Telegrams.” From Auckland, the “Topp Twins,” will provide entertainment with a feminist twist. Other activities will include recitals, alternative film showings, pottery firings, lectures, workshops, and poetry readings. A one-day festival of bands will also add interest. A writer’s forum will in- , elude author Maurice Gee ,and a joint winner of the New Zealand Book Awards, the poet, Cilla McQueen, will speak. Five Nelson artists will open their studios for public visits.

At Nelson Polytechnic, a craft school will hold courses in woodtuming, pottery, printmaking and other skills.