TAFT | 30 years of festivals
2021 marks a special milestone for an organisation that has played a monumental role in shaping Taranaki’s cultural identity. This is the 30th year for the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust, or, as it’s known around town, TAFT.
TAFT was a pioneering concept when it began, and just the second organisation of its kind in New Zealand. Three locals - Paul Goldsmith, Roger King and Grant Kerr - had been to Wellington in 1988, saw what was happening there and decided Taranaki should have its own equivalent.
Three years later in 1991, the inaugural Arts Festival featured some of the highest quality New Zealand acts of the time. The Warratahs, The Topp Twins and Dame Malvina Major stand out on a packed list of performers that has set the standard for events in the region ever since.
TAFT’s simple mission is to promote culture and arts through its events, while also contributing to the quality of life in Taranaki and the local economy.
“What we do specifically, among other things, is bring in works that wouldn’t otherwise stack up financially,” says TAFT CEO Suzanne Porter. “So it provides opportunities for the region and brings works of a very high calibre over a long time, not just for paying customers, but also schools and the community all around the region.”
High profile annual events such as WOMAD, Taranaki Garden Festival and Taranaki Arts Festival have been embraced by the community in recent years, but Suzanne Porter believes it’s the ability to capitalise on other ad hoc events that has been key.
“We’re quite unusual in that we do multiple art forms - normally a trust like us would do one arts festival every two years, but the strength in TAFT has been in seeing a number of different opportunities in different areas and maintain a full-time operation year-round.” The reason TAFT has been able to do this is because of the large number of out of town visitors its events attract. For events like the Taranaki Garden Festival and WOMAD, up to 70% of the audience comes from out of town, Porter says, which is both an immediate and future benefit for the local economy.
“What festivals and events do is give people a reason to come here. They might not really want to climb the mountain for example, but they come for the event, get an amazing experience, and during that time they see everything else there is to do here. That makes them want to come back to experience it all”, she says.
While it’s not primarily about making money, plainly things do need to be financially viable in order to work. TAFT has been able to illustrate clearly that sponsoring its events is well worthwhile. Porter says every dollar they’ve been given in sponsorship from the New Plymouth District Council, they’ve been able to turn into $16 that’s invested in the community.
Porter hopes 2021 will be no exception. This year’s Garden Festival overlaps Reset 2021, which features a smorgasbord of arts and cultural events in November. Before that, the Right Royal Cabaret Fest and Puke Ariki’s Festival of Words make the last weekend of July one to block out in the calendar.
“New Plymouth will be thriving with entertainment, cabaret, hilarious comedy, readers and writers’ workshops, musical theatre, dancing, wining, dining, and joie de vivre. People will shake off winter chills and warm up with four exhilarating days and nights worth of free and paid events for all ages to enjoy.”
Looking forward, Porter believes the same vision and creativity that has driven TAFT in the past will be the basis for the next 30 years. While the future of WOMAD remains to be seen, and Porter is always looking for new types of events, one of her main focus points is continually innovating and improving TAFT’s mainstay events to engage new and diverse audiences.
“It’s about keeping those festivals that you want and reinventing them with new stuff. You need to stay current, but you also have to cater to that next age group of festival goers coming through. You keep watching for trends to see how we can continue to make those kinds of events even better.”