Wellington Summer Festivals - Something for Everyone

There's always something going on in Wellington, and that's why I like living here.

We've just had the Sevens and there is cricket coming up. The fact that sailboats are constantly whizzing about on the water suggests that there are regattas and whatnot occurring for the boatie folk. Events are planned or have been raced for swimming, dragon boating, running and 5-a-side football.

Circus artists are performing on the wharf and the Cuba Street Carnival is on this weekend. There are outdoor film screenings, Shakespeare productions and music festivals. Recently we have had concerts in the park form a variety of artists, the One Love concert, featuriung dub, roots and reggae, and even some decent acts - Fur Patrol and David Byrne among them. In the coming weeks saxophones and double basses will abound in the Jazz Festival.

Festival is the word of the summer with one for the Chinese New Year, a Pasifikia one, and a beer festival in Waitangi Park coming up in a couple of weeks. Touring exhibitions include one of Leonardo da Vinci's more imaginative creations, and the Boston exhibition of Monet and the Impressionists at Te Papa.

Amidst all this is the Fringe Festival. I am trying to get to some shows - so far I have seen two (both of which I have thoroughly enjoyed) with more scheduled for next week. I hope to write reviews of them, but in the meantime here's my review of The Mountain which was published on Lumiere.

Wellington is a wonderfully compact little city (little more than a town really) and it's pretty easy to get to any of these events. It markets itself as the 'culture capital' and this summer it has certainly showcased its assets. From ballet dancing to Billy Connolly, there has been something for everyone. And there's plenty more where that came from.

Entertaining Children

My brother, sister-in-law and their children are visiting. This is wonderful as I haven't seen my brother for a number of years and before two weeks ago had never met their youngest child. Whenever we have friends and family to visit, we take them on tours of Wellington and environs, but we don't really do this with people with children so we wondered how to entertain them?

Fortunately they love to entertain themselves, telling themselves stories and disappearing into their imaginative worlds. On Christmas Eve they 'helped' me bake the biscuits which were to comprise presents for the parents and other adults. We made star biscuits and hundreds and thousands of the sprinkles were consumed, along with blue icing which is now decorating the kitchen benchtops.

They enjoy playing with their Christmas presents, colouring books and dot-to-dots. It seems we are more amused by table football than they. One day we went along to a park and took a football. My brother and Him Outdoors played with the football for about an hour while the children were content with the swings and the slides.

As we usually do, we took our guests to the wineries out at Martinborough. I can thoroughly recommend Vynfields as a place to take little people. The wine tastings come on a tray so you can take them away and sit in the magnificent garden with a platter too if you like. This means you can enjoy them at your leaisure while keeping an eye on the children playing in the wide open space.

Apparently rocks under trees can be converted to peanut butter sandwiches for yellow aliens (don't ask) and stone tables make excellent space ships.

Ata Rangi also has a large area for running around and playing stuck-in-the-mud or Peter Pan. I was slightly surprised that Wendy and the crocodile were the characters to be as I had always thought Wendy was a bit wet, but I think the drawcard here was that she could walk a plank (or a bench, if we're honest). Meanwhile we could get stuck into the Craighall Chardonnay with impunity.

A typical Wellington childhood entertainment is Te Papa, and we went along to see the colossal squid. I thought it was a little odd that bits of it were cut up and put in specimen jars, although it was still pretty impressive stretched out in it's entirety.

The children liked the 3D video that accompanied the exhibit, although the two questions they kept asking were, 'What killed it and why?' (Answers: fishermen; for our entertainment) and, 'Where are the dinosaurs?' (Answer: there aren't any, but there are some fossils). In fact, dramatic though the squid may be (and we are reminded that it is a colossal squid and not one of the giant variety - they are quite a different kettle of fish apparently) it lost out in the popularity stakes to ice cream.

Movenpick on Herd Street does delicious flavours - hokey pokey, vanilla (with real seeds from the pods) and the raspberry/strawberry sorbet ('It's healthy!') were among the favourites.

A short stroll along the waterfront to the playground at Freyberg Beach meant everyone could play on a variety of vomit-inducing contraptions which finished off the afternoon nicely. So there we have it; how to entertain children for a weekend in Wellington without driving adults to distraction.

Queen of wool

The exhibition of ‘Mary-Annette Hay: Queen of Wool’, at Te Papa is fascinating for a number of reasons. I was struck by the passion and the enthusiasm of the woman, and particularly the fact that she was a woman, who was breaking new ground. The wonderfully dramatic approach that she brought to her job is also inspiring.

When the New Zealand Wool Board wanted somebody to promote it in 1948, she was the only woman who applied for the job. She says humbly that with her background of public speaking, art and drama (she went to Wellington art school) that her only attribute was an overactive imagination.

She decided to dramatise the sheep and what it could produce, mixing high fashion with everyday items like lingerie, swimwear, sportswear and children’s clothes. She was particularly enamoured of Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ with its feminine silhouettes, swathes of fabric and fashionable ideals after the years of war, brutality and hardship.

The exhibit features examples of the European high fashion garments that inspired her, including beautiful gowns by Parisian designers Pierre Balmain and Marcel Rochas along with English designer daywear by Norman Hartnell, Hardy Amies and Digby Morton.

Mary-Annette Hay raised the profile of wool with her innovative dramatic productions, with names such as The Romance of Wool, All Eyes on Wool, Wool the Versatile, and The Inspiration of Wool. She wrote stories which she read on stage while others mimed the actions, and she costumed these productions herself, just as she would in a play.

In a televised interview playing on a loop, she explains that wool was the wealth of the commonwealth and that no other fibre could do what wool could do. She states, “Wool with its rich backdrop of history, religion, trade, politics and humanity is a live and vital community.” She became an expert in sales in marketing techniques, never missing an opportunity to promote the Wool Board, from shearing sheds to shop windows. Sales of wool rose rapidly in response to her enthusiasm.

When Mary-Annette went to Britain in 1951 she met with as many designers and people professionally connected with the wool industry as possible. They were not expecting a young woman and were swept away by her passion. She, in turn, returned to New Zealand with notebooks brimming with new ideas and ways to promote wool.

In an early example of ‘walking the talk’ she married (in 1953) in wool – the dress is wool gabardine with wool cord and is on display in the exhibit, as is her woollen ‘going away’ suit. She wasn’t entirely a feminist icon, as she left the Wool Board to have her first child in 1956, but she was an amazing woman nonetheless.

An exhibition about the New Zealand Wool Board isn’t necessarily something I would immediately race to see, but it was fascinating and I was bowled over by the infectious charm of this lady who believed in her product and her ability to market it.

It’s just a small exhibition on Level 4 in Te Papa and it’s on until September. I recommend it as a free way to spend an idle lunch hour.

Gunner Inglorious

Last week I went to see an excellent play called Gunner Inglorious at Soundings Theatre in Te Papa.

The one-man play, based on true events in a book by Jim Henderson has, apparently been performed over a hundred times around the country. It is still remarkably fresh and captivating and thoroughly worth seeing. I don't know what the future plans for this production are, but I strongly recommend that if you haven't yet seen it, you should do so.