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Prime Minister John Key to attend ASB Polyfest this Morning

Prime Minister John Key to attend ASB Polyfest this Morning


The ASB Polyfest has some special guests this morning at the Manukau Sports Bowl, with the Prime Minster – John Key and the Pacific Peoples Minster – Peseta Sam Lotu-liga attending the 40th Anniversary of the iconic festival from 9:30am – 11am.

John Key attended last year’s ASB Polyfest, becoming the first sitting Prime Minster to attend the festival in its recent history. After wandering around the Maori and Pacific Island secondary schools festival, he said at a function that - "I can't think of anything that's much more significant for youngsters than being able to come along over the course of four days, get to meet a whole lot of new friends and engage in activities that are going on here."

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Pacific Peoples pledged funding for the ASB Polyfest for the next three years, helping ensure the ongoing financial future of the event.

The Chairman of the ASB Polyfest Trust Steve Bovaird said this grant – “is very significant, as it helps the ASB Polyfest Trust mitigate against any future unforeseen events which may impact on the event, and has enabled us to enhance the event in its 40th year. The Minister of Pacific Peoples, Sam Lotu-liga was instrumental in securing this funding and it has given the event certainty that it didn’t have immediately after the 2014 event. This is important as the ASB Polyfest is not a profit generating event and lacks the reserves to deal with any financial problems.”

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The Prime Minster and Minster of Pacific People’s will visit the second day of the four day festival. A key part of their visit this morning will be to see kapa haka performances on the Te Whare Wanaga o Awanuiarangi Maori Stage. The stage is in action from 8am – 5pm today with 12 kapa haka groups on stage in the Division 3 competition.

A guest group on the stage today is Rangi Ruru Girls School who have made a special trip from Christchurch to perform from 12:30pm – 12:50pm.

Another stage coming to life today is ACG Diversity Stage which has its own stage at the ASB Polyfest for the first time. Stage co-ordinators Sarah Woods & Ranee Prasad said that – “the huge growth in the ACG Diversity Stage represents the changing cultural face of Auckland. The stage accepts all cultural groups that fall outside the Maori & Pacific Island stages, giving a wide range of cultures the opportunity to showcase themselves at the ASB Polyfest.”

The main culture on the ACG Diversity stage this year is Indian with 20 groups, followed by Fijian with 6 groups, African & Filipino with 5 groups each, and Korean with 4 groups. Other groups on the ACG Diversity stage today include Mongolian, Tibetan and Chinese Lion Dance groups.

A further highlight of the ASB Polyfest today is the primary and intermediate schools day which sees 400 students from throughout Auckland have their own ASB Polyfest experience from 10am – 1pm.

The 2015 ASB Polyfest takes place at the ASB Sports Bowl from Wednesday, 18 March to Saturday, 21 March. Entry is $5 with pre-school children free of charge.

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