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Cycology, Capital E National Arts Festival

Media release: 27 March 2007

On and off the buses…. thousands of children share in Festival’s Success!

Over one thousand school children each day converged on downtown Wellington during the two-week Capital E National Arts Festival, 12-24 March, the largest of its kind in New Zealand. There were also public shows on weekends and evenings and two free, family carnivals in Civic Square: GlobalFest and the Dominion Post Create-It Carnival. In total, over 32,000 tickets, around twice as many as the last festival in 2005, were sold to 10 different productions; 157 performances in total. Over 100 performers, from five different countries - the UK, USA, Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand, were involved.

Adding a lively injection of sound and colour to the city, the 450 bus loads of excited school children were ferried between eight central venues by Capital E hosts, in their distinctive purple and green T-shirts. The highly-tuned operation of transporting and caring for so many children, along with their teachers and parents, relied on extensive planning, coordination and cooperation, not to mention support from bus companies and central city locals.

“A major element of enjoying a festival day out is that everyone knows they are safe”, says Capital E Director, Stuart Grant, “The Capital E hosts did an amazing job of managing so many people. We’ve had great feedback from parents, teachers and children on how well they were looked after.”

The fully trained hosts met each group off the bus and remained with them for the day, escorting them from venue to venue along pre-planned routes. Wellington City Council Walkwise team, Go Wellington buses and staff from the Wellington Convention Centre all volunteered staff and resources to provide a fully coordinated operation. Lunchtimes were the liveliest as children took to the streets on their journey from show to show and Civic Square converted in to a giant playground and picnic spot at 12.30pm each day, complete with special visits from the performers.

“We had the best day today - our girls just loved every part of the day. What fantastic organisation and quality shows!” Christine Barlow, Samuel Marsden School

Special bus services were provided for the region by Stagecoach, Cityline and Runciman’s operators and a number of senior staff on the ground maintained safety and scheduling with little disruption to regular traffic. Without this support, and the subsidised bus fares it provided, children would not have had access to the top quality professional performances the Festival offered.

“We can bring shows from the US, the UK, Australia and South East Asia to Wellington, but it’s our transport partner who brings Wellington to the shows”, says Stuart.

From Australia’s Sharon Keep Ya Hair On, a rock musical at Capital E, and AkeAke’s seafaring circus extravaganza, Ship Song in Shed 11 to Hoop of Life, an amazing display of Native American hoop dancing at the Paramount, and The Green Sheep with its gigantic sheep pen in the Michael Fowler Centre, the Capital’s venues buzzed with wild reaction from the region’s children.

Capital E is managed by the Wellington Museums Trust with major funding from the Wellington City Council.

ENDS

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