Tauranga Fringe – a one day extravaganza

Tauranga Festival Director Ayesha Kee. Photo: John Borren.

A one-day art extravaganza is set to bring the weird and wonderful, the strange and bizarre and the beautiful and provocative to Tauranga this weekend.

Saturday's Tauranga Fringe 2022, held at the Historic Village on 17th Avenue, will have something for all the family - including a hula hoop party, pop-up theatre, street performers, fashion shows, poetry, comedy, art workshops, installation art, music, films, artistic plastic recycling, live drawing, around 30 market stalls and more than a dozen food trucks.

The Incubator Creative Hub director Simone Anderson says they want to give stimulating art experiences to the community.

'It's a one-day, arts blast spectacular as Tauranga's creative community parade, produce, present and perform,” says Simone.

'It is about handing the microphone to our artistic community and creating a platform for our arts sector to connect with audience and spectators.”

The inaugural Tauranga Fringe, held in 2019, was attended by more than 5000 with hundreds more working behind the scenes. This year's festival is also set to be another vibrant flourishing of creativity.

Festival director Ayesha Kee has been delighted by the number of pop-up exhibitions that have been submitted for this year's event.

'We've had amazing entries, including several micro exhibitions which we're really excited about,” says Ayesha.

Among the displays will be the Freelunch Street Theatre Company, a photo booth, steam punk, Mushie Hunt, Dobby Art live drawing, Ivy Anderson Podmore's miniature paintings, Anne Dugmore's Dark Gothic altered art, the Great Lilliputian Exhibit by Bobbi Summers, Through the Ages by Katja Pott, and Pseudo Science by Rolph Hediger and Bobbi Summers, which peeks at false observations and physical experiments.

Silversmith Ruth O'Connell and fashion designer Kerry Funnell have collaborated for a fashion-art fusion show. Painters Sam Allen and Ally Drury will be painting live, with Sam working on a mural while Ally spray paints a van.

In the Village Cinema, the Fringe Festival Reel will be playing in the morning and afternoon interspersed with poetry at 12:15pm. Over at the Chapel Malia McGuire, Miss Leading and Honest Liars will be entertaining all-comers. A Zinefest library and workshop will be running at the Artery.

Malia McGuire will also be performing on the village balcony in the afternoon following on from Tumanako Farrel in the morning.

On the Grass Stage and Underwater Stage will be a vibrant variety of performances and shows including Joanna Melbourne, The Indecisives, Cybele Chapman, The Venus Project, Crooked Finger, Stella Vision, Sophie Maude, Dr Archaeo, Lula, Curves O Plenty, Cristy Ana, YDoubleR and a fashion show.

The Front Lawn at the Jam Factory also has live performances with fuse drumming, a hula hoop dance fest, Kathy Rhindhoops and Elektric Endz.

The Fringe Kids Area will feature cape making with Kalena Egan, water pistol play, rock painting and a kids' workshop with Joanne Black, as well as face painting all day on the Okorore Deck.

The galleries will be bursting with exhibitions as well. The Good Sheet Collective are holding their Impermanence exhibition in The People's Gallery – Toi Ka Rere, and at the far end of the village there is an exhibition of ceramics by Dominque Ford at The Pot House.

In The Incubator Gallery, exhibitions on display include the Patched Up Group Show, The Dolls House by Ivy Podmore, Kinky Bad Art by Ellie Wilder and Taxiquirky by Michelle Cliff.

The public will be able to visit the working studios of artists based in the village, and stay for a whole day of events, music and markets. Under the traffic light system, Covid-19 vaccination certificates will be checked on entry.

Tauranga Fringe 2022 will be held at the Historic Village, 17th Avenue from 10am-5pm on Saturday, January 15. Entry is $10 and under-14s can attend free of charge.

Live painting

One artist set to showcase his creativity live at Fringe 2022 is painter and muralist Sam Allen.

Sam is a resident artist at The Incubator Creative Hub and will work alongside fellow painter Ally Drury, mural painting onto board while Ally spray paints onto a van.

Inspired by the people, legends, environment and creatures of Tauranga, Sam's primary medium is acrylic paint, but he also enjoys watercolours and ink.

'The paintings that I create aren't confined to canvas,” says Sam. 'They live on everything from cardboard to brick walls. Anything can be made into art if you're creative enough.”

Over the past 12 months Sam has painted several large-scale murals throughout Tauranga. He's also been involved with several group exhibitions and worked alongside a number of schools, including Otūmoetai Primary School and GateSchool to create community murals.

Gothic art and steam punk

Gothic art miniatures by Ann Dugmore will delight audiences on Saturday at the Tauranga Fringe festival.

The micro exhibition of dark gothic altered art has the theme of ‘dating sites meet ancient gothic practices'.

Ann, along with Andria Goodliffe from Steampunk Tauranga, has also contributed steam punk outfits to a static display and will be joined by other members of Steampunk Tauranga dressed in their magnificent sartorial costumes.

'There'll be so much happening on the day,” says Tauranga Fringe director Ayesha Kee. 'We're all looking forward to an amazing day out for Tauranga.”

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