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Best of Auckland this week: Pasifika Festival, plus see SWIDT, Church & AP for free at Music in Parks

Possibly our most event-packed calendar yet?

Best of Auckland this week: Pasifika Festival, plus see SWIDT, Church & AP for free at Music in Parks

Mar 13, 2020 What's On

Wow, there are so many things to do in Auckland this week! Art exhibitions, free gigs, ticketed gigs, Auckland Arts Festival, outdoor cinema. 

Salome Tanuvasa: Autotelic

We’ve enjoyed Tanuvasa’s past exhibitions, most recently Mirrored Systems, featuring colourful drawings arranged purposely to explore communications of meaning and understandings. Here, she shows new work.
On now till 4 April | Tim Melville Gallery

Everyone has a horse phase: Claudia Kogachi

On-hiatus New Zealand racehorses would very much like to be left alone. Kogachi uses small ceramics and paintings to depict small insights into their holiday – grazing, swimming, galloping – before they have to inevitably return to the race track. Sad.
On now till 22 March | Sanderson Contemporary Gallery

Beacon Festival 2020

Friendly Potential host an open-air electronic festival by the water, with sets by Richie Hawtin, Nina Nina Kraviz and Job Jobse among others, plus kai from Bar Céleste  and burger pop-up Five Boroughs. Sounds Cool.
Saturday 14 March | Queens Wharf

Kauri Karnival

Most Kiwi kids in Auckland will recall visiting Tane Mahuta, the thousands-of-years-old kauri named for the Maori god for forests and birds. It was most recently in the news for being threatened by kauri dieback (not good!). Honour kauri trees and the environment and all that jazz at this free day of live music, environmental workshops and food stalls.
Saturday 14 March | Parrs Park

Music in Parks: Flava Urban Beats

Fire line-up: SWIDT, P-Money, Church & AP, Emily Muli and Lepani. And can you believe that it’s free?
Saturday 14 March | Hayman Park, Manukau

Auckland St Patrick’s Festival Parade 2020

Claims to be “the first St Patrick’s Parade in the world, and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere”. Pretty impressive for wee ole Auckland. I considered listing the pubs that would be celebrating, but let’s be honest, every single Irish pub in Auckland will have their doors flung wide with décor (and staff) decked in green.
Saturday 14 March | Queen Street

Pasifika Festival

UPDATE: The Pasifika Festival has been cancelled due to concerns regarding the coronavirus. Click here for more information.

After a cancellation in 2019, the Pasifika Festival is set to return and celebrate the many cultures which make up the Pacific. There will be over 200 performances over the two days, and 10 individual villages to showcase different art forms, practices and food. 
Saturday 14-15 March | Western Springs Park

Auckland Arts Festival

Some picks this week:

Black Lover – 12-29 March
UPU – 12-15 March
Ka Po, Ka Waiata – 18 March
Dimanche – 18-22 March

Plus, read our previews of Biladurang, Cold Blood and Estere – Into the Belly of the Capricorn.

READ MORE: Where to eat before a show in Auckland, What I Ate, with Black Lover actor Cameron Rhodes

Fresh off the Page – Black Tree Bridge

Fresh off the Page’s first event of 2020 is Chye-Ling Huang’s Black Tree Bridge, “a contemporary exploration on family, connection and culture”. Standard tickets are $10; concession is $8.
Thursday 19 March | Basement Theatre

Silo Cinema People’s Choice: 10 Things I Hate About You

Am I surprised that the winner of People’s Choice was 10 Things I Hate About You? Not at all. I studied this film for Year 10 English, and a boy in my class threw an apple at the whiteboard in protest that we were studying a romantic comedy. I had no choice but to stan (the movie, that is). I can still almost recite word-for-word Julia Stiles’ poem she read out, through tears, in English class.
Friday 20 March | Silo Park

Pickle Darling

Siri, why does every musician in 2020 that wears baggy jeans with sneakers put out tunes music journalists like to call “bedroom pop”? And why do I love every one of them?
Friday 20 March | The Wine Cellar

Latest

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Metro N°443 is Out Now.

Welcome to the new issue of Metro! Our annual Auckland Schools report card! Twenty-four great Aucklanders on how to fix greater Auckland! The best sweet treats in Tāmaki! The best (and worst) tasting toothpastes! A history of the Waitangi Tribunal! The troubling state of our public toilets! The return of the NZIFF! Derek Jarman comes to town! Our favourite designers' favourite designers! Out the back in the new Gow Langsford! Satellites! Milli Jannides' studio! Lauren Gunn's clothes! @chamfy's polls! And more, much more!

Cover by Maria Skog

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