Sophie Kelly has taken over the helm of the Nelson Arts Festival as director this year after working with the team as programme director for six years.

Sophie tells us more about the role and highlights from the 17 day festival programme including the Nelson Masked Parade on Friday. “This is an event that really speaks about Nelson's community spirit and creativity.”

Tell us a bit about your background.

I came to the festival team as Programme Coordinator in 2004, soon after returning home to Nelson after eight years working in Amsterdam’s vibrant restaurant scene. As understudy to long-serving Festival Director Annabel Norman, I soon developed on my existing theatre and live music knowledge.

How long have you been involved with the Nelson Arts Festival?

Seven years, I took on the Director’s role earlier this year.

What does the role of director involve?

Attending arts markets and putting the programme together, developing sponsorship relationships – in Nelson we have a lot of smaller sponsors rather than a few large ones, managing the festival crew which grows from our core three staff to a huge team of contractors in the lead up and during the festival, and because we are a Council run festival there is a lot of liaison with other Council departments. I really enjoy the relationship side of the director’s job - with the visiting artists, the crew and the sponsors.

What combination of people and resources are involved in putting on the festival?

I work year-round with two others in our festival office, the programme coordinator Charlie Unwin who does all our artist liaison, bookings etc, and Cam Woods the marketing person. Then we have four key contractors, our publicist who also happens to be our Readers and Writers’ coordinator, the technical director and our two community events managers. In the lead up to the festival this team swells to over 40 with sound and lighting crew, set builders, the recycling angel – it’s a big team and it has a real family feeling. Many of the crew have been working with us for years.

How has the festival evolved since it first started?

This is our 16th year. The festival grew up around WOW when that was a major Nelson attraction so the big change was in 2005 when we were stand alone for the first time. We weathered that and have continued to grow the festival in size and calibre of content. The Readers and Writers section of the festival has really gown and this year has 14 writers from Dame Alison Holst to performance poet Ben Brown.

Tell us a bit about this year’s festival?

It’s 17 days, clustered over three weekends. We are thrilled to present Rita and Douglas, the unusual love story of two of New Zealand's cultural treasures, Rita Angus and Douglas Lilburn, performed by renowned pianist Michael Houstoun and performer Jennifer Ward-Lealand.

Another highlight is to have the Loons Circus Company back in town with their new physical theatre work Berlin Burlesque; in keeping with the rugby theme we present C'Mon Black, the story of Dickie Hart and his adventures supporting the All Blacks in South Africa; and on the musical side a very wide reaching range of performers includes choral harmonies from Dudley Benson and the Dawn Chorus, Pacific treasure Will Crummer and The Rarotongans, and from Italy, acoustic guitarist Antonio Forcione who will wow us with his trio's dynamic musical virtuosity.

We are also incredibly excited about Piki Mai, an abstract audio visual art work that will be projected onto the Nelson Cathedral and Church Steps. This work has been commissioned by Michael Hodgson and it is a real coup to be presenting his work as part of the festival.

How is the Nelson Arts Festival different from other arts festivals in NZ?

Our focus on community events really marks us out. We start the whole thing off with the Nelson Masked Parade on Friday with the theme Playful Pacifica. This is an event that really speaks about Nelson's community spirit and creativity and this year's theme will allow entrants to express their kiwi heritage in costumes and masks that will range from flights of tui to swarms of buzzy-bees. The evening continues with the More FM Carnivale & Sonic 1903 Live Zone. It is very exciting to have Midnight Youth and Knives at Noon in Nelson as part of the REAL New Zealand Festival's kiwi music tour.

Our other difference is that we are annual – all the other regional festivals are staged every two years.

Do you work with other festivals – NZ and internationally?

We attend PANZ, and APAM in Adelaide and attend their Fringe Festival at the same time – we have had some great shows from that. And we work with Tauranga and Otago – every second year one of them coincides with us and we can share travel costs on international guests.

How have you had to adapt the festival for the RWC?

The change in the school term means we have not had a schools programme this year. We have worked with the team running The Game On Festival– Nelson’s events for RWC visitors.

Has the RWC made it easier or harder to attract audiences?

We won’t really know this until the festival is over. Nelson is also hosting the Masters Games and we’re hoping to pick up some audience from that.

You have three NZ premieres this year – tell us a bit about them.

The Arts Festival aims to bring shows to Nelson that people wouldn’t normally see here. The three premieres are Fabulous Arabia where the quirky Lawrence Arabia teams up with Mikey Fabulous (of the Black Seeds and Fly My Pretties) plus a whole bunch of others of similar pedigree – expect three part harmonies, brass, funky rhythms. Then there is The Butcher’s Daughter: one of the three plays in a Night of Theatre – it’s by Joe Bennet and performed by Loons Theatre. Metamorphoses is the third all new show (see below).

What are some of the uniquely Nelson works?

We have free live music at the Granary every night that there are shows programmed, a new show from local company Body in Space called Metamorphoses based on Greek legend, and then thre are our wonderful school performances ranging from kapa haka to choirs, every day this week in the central city at Westpac Red Square.

What are some of the educational programmes?

We are using some of the Loons Theatre talent to run hula hooping workshops, and Hopey One the amazing beat-boxer who is here with Dudley Benson is also running a workshop.

What are some of your personal highlights from the programme?

I’m encouraging people who missed out on Berlin Burlesque (our first sell-out) to book for the cabaret show Random Acts of God…it’s a very good show they may have overlooked. I saw it in Christchurch and while it’s inspired by the earthquakes it is not dark – a live band performs wonderful renditions of numbers from artists as diverse as The Cure, Mazzy Star, Johnny Cash and Tom Waits while a quartet of dancers express the full range of emotions felt post quake. Sexy, provoking, stylish and definitely unique, it’s a fantastic show.

Also after the programme went to print we scored an extra gig from Bachelorette. It’s a stop-over on the last tour by this star of electronic music and screen images. She will perform the beautiful music from her latest self-titled release, Bachelorette, as well as material from earlier albums, at the Granary Festival Cafe after Fabulous Arabia. Bachelorette has performed before with Lawrence Arabia and I think her show will really appeal to people who’ve been at the Fabulous Arabia gig.

What’s your big idea for 2012?

I’m trying not to think about that yet!

• The Nelson Arts Festival is on from October 7-24.