Two stunning photographic exhibitions, new New Zealand theatre, international and local music acts, contemporary dance by leading choreographers and a touch of the circus come to Tauranga in October for Tauranga Arts Festival.

The 2009 Tauranga Arts Festival programme was launched today and director Philip Tremewan says there is something to excite and entertain everyone.

“We’re thrilled with this year’s programme,” says Philip. “Economic times are tough at the moment and this festival brings light into economic gloom and it’s a time to get out there and enjoy yourself, let your hair down, have a bit of fun and see fantastic things.”

Tauranga Arts Festival runs from October 22 to November 1 and incorporates a Writers and Readers programme from October 29 to November 1.

Opening a week prior to the Festival is the stunning World Press Photo exhibition featuring the best press photos of the year. This travelling exhibition is seen by more than two million people in some 45 countries worldwide.

“We had the 2007 version for the last festival and again we expect visitors to be intrigued, moved, delighted and sometimes stunned by these images,” Philip says.

Local Bay of Plenty people also feature in another photographic exhibition, People of the Bay. This special double project includes an exhibition by eight leading local photographers and an interactive exhibition – Festival photographer Nikki South will be on the Strand every day during the Festival taking photos which will be added to the shots flowing through on a giant screen.

The TVNZ Crystal Palace returns to Tauranga for the Festival with a full programme of music and entertainment. Belgian chanteuse Micheline Van Hautem opens the music programme with her smouldering versions of fellow countryman Jacques Brel in two shows ‘Brel’ and ‘Chocolat’, which also features her own songs.

Other international acts in the TVNZ Crystal Palace include international singing sensation and performance artist Meow Meow; Australian music comedy act The Kransky Sisters and high-energy Brazilian group Tambolele.

New Zealand acts also feature with Jess Chambers and The Firefly Orchestra and the return of the ever-popular Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, plus there’s a programme of lunchtime and early afternoon music with Paul McLaney, Anna Coddington, The Mellow Drops, Rosy Tin Teacaddy, Tim O’Brien: Two Oceans Trio and Trevor Braunias Trio.

 Also featuring in the extensive music programme is leading Wellington six-piece The Phoenix Foundation performing one night only at Baycourt Theatre on Saturday 31 October.

Classical music lovers have two highlights in the programme – Faure’s Requiem performed by the country’s top choir, Voices New Zealand with Opus Orchestra; and Piano Duets with New Zealand’s most acclaimed pianists Michael Houstoun and Diedre Irons.

Five New Zealand productions make up the theatre programme for Tauranga Arts Festival 2009. The new New Zealand play Le Sud, from the pen of Dave Armstrong, is a rollicking political satire which warmly pokes fun at three cultures, two islands and one country; while Hotel is theatre at its most intimate, inside hotel room 329; Ship Songs weaves together sea shanties, epic adventures and intimate love stories; and The Butler melds a circus spectacular with intimate comic theatre into a jaw-dropping performance which is sexy, visually stunning and bitingly satirical.

The fifth theatre piece is especially for young festivalgoers – Tale of A Dog from Capital E National Theatre for Children is a delightful circus-inspired show best suited for children aged two to six years, their parents and grandparents.

Leading New Zealand choreographers Malia Johnston and Michael Parmenter, together with dancer turned choreographer Sarah Foster, have created new works inspired by their experiences of growing up in New Zealand and by remarkable New Zealanders. Footnote, a showcase of dance, directed by Diedre Tarrant of Footnote Dance, has a one night only show in the Festival.

The dance programme also includes Flicker, a piece inspired by images, thoughts and half-remembered stories and choreographed by Ann Dewey and dancers; and the Imperial Russian Ballet Company returns with the gorgeous Swan Lake.

Australian musician and inventor Linsey Pollak returns to Tauranga Arts Festival with his new show Passing Wind and with the fascinating Extinction Room for which the audience dons headphones and blindfolds and enters a room where they hear the sounds of endangered and extinct species.

And everyone can experience the fun of the Festival when The Strand and central Tauranga come alive with street performers on Saturday 24 October.

An ancient olive tree, sampling local food and wine in Italy and France, the economic crisis, marriage and art, pleasure gardens and poetry are just a few of the topics featuring in the Festival’s Writers and Readers Programme which runs from 29 October to 1 November at the TVNZ Crystal Palace.

British actress turned novelist Carol Drinkwater, author of The Olive Route and The Olive Tree, features alongside New Zealanders writer Nicky Pellegrino; columnist Joe Bennett (returning by popular demand); Montana Book Award Fiction winner Emily Perkins, whose artist husband Karl Maughan will join her to talk about their lives as artists and as a family with their three children; NZ Gardener editor Lynda Hallinan, and acclaimed poets Bill Manhire and Glenn Colquhoun.

The Tauranga Arts Festival is possible through the support of all our sponsors including Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust (TECT), Port of Tauranga, ABN-AMRO Craigs, Mediaworks, Bay of Plenty Times, The Radio Network, The Sebel Trinity Wharf and TVNZ.

For more information on the programme, visit www.taurangafestival.co.nz. Tickets for the Tauranga Arts Festival 2009 are now on sale through TicketDirect by phoning 0800 4TICKET (484 2538) or online at www.ticketdirect.co.nz