A wide range of exciting events will draw visitors to Wellington this
summer. First the World Premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King,, one of the biggest celebrations in the city's
history. In February and March 2004 there is the New Zealand International
Arts Festival. More than 60 events are planned in Wellington between
November and March, firmly establishing the city as New Zealand's events
capital. From quirky to highbrow, inspiring to surprising - Wellington is
the place to be this summer.
Positively Wellington Tourism Chief Executive Tim Cossar said the Premiere
would be an unparalleled opportunity for Wellington to take the world
spotlight. Peter Jackson, many of the film's stars and hundreds of
international media are set to come to Wellington for the event.
Seeing the world premiere on the Internet
Lord of the Rings fans from around the world can watch Wellington
host the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King just by logging onto the Internet. Web cameras set up along the
route of the planned street parade feed live images into a new website
which celebrates Wellington's starring role in The Lord of the
Rings trilogy and other films.
"The city will be buzzing. We've got some major events to look forward to,
such as the World Premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King,, the 2004 New Zealand International Arts Festival and the New
Zealand International Sevens."
"Not to mention the Cuba Street Carnival, Cricket games at the Basin
Reserve and some great exhibitions at City Gallery and Te Papa.
"This summer will give potential visitors every excuse under the sun to
come to Wellington and stay for longer."
Accommodation
Tim Cossar said accommodation bookings for the Premiere were strong, but
there were still rooms available. Bars and restaurants along the street
parade route had also been booked for the December 1 premiere.
A winning hotel offers new accommodation and facilities
Months
of intensive refurbishment by The James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor have
paid off, with the hotel scooping four awards at the Hospitality
Association's 2003 awards ceremony this month.
The hotel won the Overall Supreme Award and three other awards for best
redeveloped accommodation hotel, best redeveloped bar/restaurant for
Sojourn Café Bar and Excellence in Customer Service.
A winning restaurant where you can dine
The hotel win follows success by Intercontinental Wellington's restaurant
Chameleon, which was named the New Zealand Restaurant Association
Restaurant of the Year for the third year running last month.
Trips on the harbour
Wellington's photogenic harbour is fast becoming a tourist playground,
thanks to The Dominion Post Ferry. The Ferry, which for 15 years has
offered an invaluable commuter service to Eastbourne, is now increasing its
focus on the tourist market.
Managing Director East By West Ferries, Jeremy Ward, said Wellington's
harbour was one of the city's greatest tourism attractions.
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Somes Island
Photo source Alister Hunt
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"Matiu/Somes Island really blows tourists away. It's rodent-free, stacked
with history and gives stunning 360 degree views of the city. Many picnic
on the Island and then keep going to Days Bay."
Jeremy said with numbers of both international and domestic tourists to
Wellington increasing, The Dominion Post Ferry was hoping to create more
opportunities for visitors to experience the harbour.
The Dominion Post Ferry runs three return trips to Matiu/Somes Island daily
and up to 9 return trips daily between Queens Wharf and Days Bay.
The New Zealand International Arts Festival in 2004
Gita Parsot, Communications Manager for the New Zealand International Arts
Festival reports:
The world will be in Wellington at the New Zealand International Arts
Festival 2004.
Events for the New Zealand International Arts Festival 2004 will feature
some of the world's best artists and performers in a three week feast of
music, opera, dance, theatre, visual arts and comedy.
There are artists from 22 countries, as well as many of New Zealand's
most outstanding contemporary artists and companies. Headline acts include
Grammy Award winners and nominees galore, a Pulitzer Prize Winner, an Oscar
Winner, Emmy Award winning work, shows straight from the West End and
Edinburgh.
The 2004 Festival will be the tenth Festival in the Festival's twenty-year
history.
"We're presenting something for everyone from spectacular family events
The Blue Planet Live! and Cookin' to surreal circus to
cutting edge dance and sparkling cabaret, " says Artistic Director Carla
van Zon. "We hope to provoke laughter and tears, amazement and joy for
all who participate."
The Stadium Spectacular in 2004 will be The Blue Planet
Live!, the innovative concert based on the international award
winning series of the same name. The Blue Planet Live! makes its
Southern Hemisphere debut at the Festival after sell-out performances in
London, New York, Copenhagen and Hong Kong.
The concert brings together breathtaking, never before filmed scenes from
our ocean planet and projects them onto giant screens with George Fenton's
passionate and stirring score for the footage brought to life by
orchestra, two choirs and soloists in two unforgettable evenings at the
Wellington's Westpac Stadium.
A play without words, a ballet without dance? The Overcoat
wowed and mesmerized audiences and critics alike overseas and
now it comes to New Zealand from the Barbican in London. Loosely based
on Gogol's short story of the same name it's a large ensemble piece with a
cast of 22 bringing to life over 60 characters in a lavish production set
to the sweeping music of Shostakovich.
From France comes the New Zealand Post season of James Thiérrée's
The Junebug Symphony, a magical surreal show for the whole
family. His parents Victoria Chaplin and Jean-Baptist Thiérrée, created
the 1998 Festival hit Le Cercle Invisible.. Junebug brings to
life weird and wonderful creatures in the half world between waking and
sleeping. You won't believe your eyes.
Fierce flamenco rhythms, power, energy and heart-stopping beauty, with
hands moving expressively and feet stamping to a ferocious unison required
when dancers and musicians thunder on stage. This is the colourful,
elegant, stylish and powerful National Bank of New Zealand season of
Ballet Nacional de Espana (Spanish National Ballet
Company). There's cutting edge dance-opera with the return of C.de
la B with its work, Foi (Faith).
Uncorking a potion of emotion is the Telecom opera The Elixir of
Love (L'elisir d'amore) by Donizetti, the timeless story about
obtaining the unattainable girl, featuring an outstanding international
cast and crew. It Fizzes with high spirits, pathos and passion.
The hottest ticket from the Edinburgh Fringe is 12 Angry
Men, a gritty and spellbinding masterpiece based on Reginald
Rose's deadly serious and beautifully crafted, Pulitzer-winning
masterpiece, immortalised in Henry Fonda's Oscar-winning film. In it 12
jurors deliberate over the fate of a young delinquent awaiting sentencing
for the manslaughter of his aggressive father.
And After Mrs Rochester, the moving and compelling story
of tragic and scandalous writer Jean Rhys and the connection between her
famous book Wide Sargasso Sea, and Mrs Rochester, Jane Eyre's mad
woman in the attic.
For the entertainment of all the family, hot on the heels of STOMP, comes
Cookin', the sell-out hit for two years in a row in
Edinburgh, where four wacky Korean chefs ham it up in the kitchen to
traditional salmunori beats with a western twist.
In music Tan Dun the Oscar and Grammy award-winning composer of
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and America's Composer of the Year will
conduct the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in two of his works at the
Festival's closing concert. International renowned pianist Boris
Berman and cellist Dmitry Sitkovetsky join together for the
Festival's opening concert as part of the Tower International Series.
A music legend in many parts of the world and his country's Minister of
Culture, Gilberto Gil will perform two concerts after being named
the Latin Grammy Awards Person of the Year last month.
The cat from the Bronz, clarinetist Don Byron performs two
concerts. Time Magazine wrote: "Calling Don Byron a jazz
musician is like calling the Pacific wet - it just doesn't begin to
describe it."
The High Priest of Jazz Abdullah Abrahim >from South Africa,
Carmen Linares, one of the greatest flamenco singers of her
generation and the indescribable and multi-talented four-time Grammy Award
winner Lyle Lovett will each perform one-off concerts.
And what are the pigs doing on the farm? We'll find out in a 21st Century
adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm. 180 performers
will bring Dvorak's powerful choral work the Stabart Mater
to life. Russian baritone Sergei Leiferkus 's command of both voice
and stagecraft ensures he is known throughout the world for vivid and
powerful performances. He pays homage to Feodor Chaliapin in a one-off
concert.
New New Zealand work includes Hone Kouka's The Prophet
which concludes his Waiora trilogy, Roger Hall's hilarious
Spreading Out, Anthony Ritchie and Stuart Hoar s comic
chamber opera, Quartet and Verona's Geographical
Cure. The Royal New Zealand Ballet returns with a programme
of three works, and for the children, there's the Lynda Chanwai-Earle's
Monkey!
Toi Mana is a brilliant show case of Maori performing
arts from the traditional kapa haka through to contemporary performances.
Featured artists include Hinewehi Mohi and Whirimako Black.
Mahinarangi Tocker and Greg Johnson perform new music at the
Heineken Festival Club and Kate Dimbleby returns with Music to
Watch Boys By.
2004 is the first year comedy will feature at the Festival with the
Best of the Fest from the Edinburgh Assembly Rooms, The Flight
of the Conchords, Boothby Graffoe and John Hegley.
New Zealand Post Writers and Readers features international and
national stars of the literary world. 2004 sees the irrepressible Clive
James, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford head to our shores
with biographer Jenny Uglow, essayist Eliot Weinberger,
poet Mark Doty children's writer Geraldine McCaughrean and
cult figure Etgar Keret, and Jenny Diski to name a few.
As well as an extensive regional, schools, and master class programme,
where we take the Festival to schools and schools come to the Festival at
discounted prices there are three free picnics each Saturday throughout
the Festival which bring international and local acts to the people thanks
to Toyota.
The full programme is available throughout New Zealand and for further
information logon to http://www.nzfestival.telecom.co.nz
For further information contact Gita Parsot, Communications Manager,
New Zealand International Arts Festival on 04-496-5493 or 027-201-1017 or
email: gita.parsot@festival.co.nz
T: +64-4-473-0149
F: +64-4-471-1164
Level 2 Anvil House
138 - 140 Wakefield Street
PO Box 10 - 113 Wellington
New Zealand
