Arts fix on its way

If you haven’t yet seen this year’s Nelson Arts Festival programme – where have you been??

Early bird ticket sales to the newly-launched programme are tracking well. Over 70 events and six international acts this year feature in this year’s festival (October 11-28).

Grab a full programme from Nelson City Council, libraries, retailers, cafes and key visitor outlets in Nelson or visit www.nelsonartsfestival.co.nz to book your early bird tickets.

New ticketing set-up
We’ve taken a bit of a different approach to ticketing this year. Tickets are available from more than one source:

• buy directly online for all events at nelsonartsfestival.co.nz where you can even print out your tickets. For all tickets excluding performances at The Theatre Royal and Nelson School of Music you can buy them from Nelson City Council’s Customer Service Centre on the ground floor of Civic House (business hours Monday-Friday)
• you can purchase tickets to all performances from the Nelson iSite – open seven days (Cnr Trafalgar & Halifax Sts)
• buy tickets for shows at the Nelson School of Music and the Theatre Royal from the venue’s own box offices
• and from Saturday - get them at the Nelson Market where we’re trialling an information and ticketing stand
We appreciate the new system’s an adjustment for punters. Like with all new set-ups there were a couple of teething problems but these are now resolved and good to go!

Biggest show of the festival would have to be....
Fault lines dance work will bring 25 performers/crew from China – it’s one of the biggest works we’ve ever presented. Fault lines is a collaboration between New Zealand director Sara Brodie and 20 dancers who experienced the devastating Sichuan earthquake of 2008.

The show celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in times of extreme adversity. The dancers move with such incredible grace and ease, this is a show you don’t want to miss!

On the road
Where we bring you review notices from outta town and get the critics’ top picks on what we have in store. This week we take Squidboy which has just been in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival nad was reviewed by Jessica Cheetham from fringereview.co.uk

Squidboy is the story of a fisherman who dreams he is a squid…or maybe a squid that dreams that he is a fisherman.
A mad-cap mimed journey through the mind of Trygve Wakenshaw, Squidboy is a lovable and hilarious piece of physical comedy. Wakenshaw uses mime and music to lead the audience through the twists and turns of his zany narrative...
... Squidboy is the cult show of the Fringe – you must go to find out what everyone is giggling about in the queues for shows.

You can catch Squidboy at the Suter Theatre on Wed 23 Oct, 7.30pm or join us for an evening show the Granary Festival Cafe, Thurs 24 Oct 9pm.

For the rest of the review follow the link http://www.fringereview.co.uk/fringeReview/5497.html

Buzz about books
Our Page & Blackmore Readers and Writers’ coordinator Jacquetta Bell is not a girl to get over-excited but she says she’s ‘blown away’ by the response to this year’s programme: “I’ve had Marti Friedlander asking me to send her more programmes for friends who want to come down from Auckland, there are people asking the Book Discussion Scheme to buy up The Rosie Project so their group can read it then go to hear Graeme Simsion, tickets to Lloyd Jones and the Thinking Brunches are walking out the door and I’ve even had one person say they’re more excited about Readers and Writers than the rest of the festival. All I can say is - be in or you could miss out.”

See you at the Festival
The Nelson Arts Festival is produced by the Nelson City Council as a celebration for locals and an attraction for visitors
BOOKINGS: www.nelsonartsfestival.co.nz

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