It's a long time between Festivals... so the Trustees of the Lake Taupo Arts Festival Trust are thrilled to announce a new series of exciting and dynamic arts and culture events that will be delivered across the Taupo District.

Delivered under the banner of 'Erupt Events', the new programme aims to add some cultural colour to the Taupo events calendar, provide the Taupo community with some new opportunities to participate in the arts, and to celebrate the talented Taupo and Tuwharetoa people.

The first event kicks off next month... Great Lake Tales is Taupo's own Readers & Writers series with five authors hosted in Taupo over consecutive weekends in July and August. 

Then in October, it gets public with Geon Graffiato - a celebration of urban and street art in Taupo, Turangi and Mangakino... Erupt will be hosting some of New Zealand's most talented emerging urban artists and adding some colour across the district!

In March next year, the wider Taupo community will be encouraged to celebrate the huge depth of creative talent in the district at The Big Day Art - an opportunity for all those amateur and professional creatives to join together in a celebration of talent.

The Erupt Lake Taupo Festival - powered by Unison - is back from 10-20 May 2012 - and it's going to be HUGE!  New Festival Director, Amanda Wright, is developing a colourful, vibrant and exciting programme - with a few twists and a world premiere! 

Great Lake Tales will return again in the winter of 2012, and then in October the Trust will host another public art event - this time entitled The Big ?... a supersized sculpture symposium.

Heading into 2013.... Big Day Art will be back as an annual event, and the last event in the new programme is another Festival in May 2013 - entitled Fire & Ice... it will challenge and electrify and will certainly get noticed.

The Lake Taupo Arts Festival Trust will shortly be calling for expressions of interest for artists and curators (via Big Idea) for a number of the new events.  In the meantime, please email kylie@erupt.co.nz.