Arts and culture magazine White Fungus launches its eighth issue at Happy Bar and Venue on Wednesday 26 September. The Wellington-based publication, which recently celebrated its third birthday, is now on sale in Australia, Berlin, Canada, the U.S. and throughout Asia.

Arts and culture magazine White Fungus launches its eighth issue at Happy Bar and Venue on Wednesday 26 September. The Wellington-based publication, which recently celebrated its third birthday, is now on sale in Australia, Berlin, Canada, the U.S. and throughout Asia.

The new issue includes articles on electro producer Disasteradio, painter Rob McLeod and writer Nicky Hager, as well as new poems by Vivienne Plumb.

"We're interested into tapping into stuff that's going on all over the place, but we've actually managed to connect to other cultures through the magazine without actually having to physically leave Wellington," says editor Ron Hanson. White Fungus recently received a grant from Creative New Zealand to support the new growth.

"The distribution contract was an amazing surprise to us," Hanson says. "But we think there's growing interest in New Zealand arts and also the company, Disticor, being from Canada, I think, can relate to our situation. The founders actually started the company about 30 years ago after leaving Gordon & Gotch because it refused to actually distribute Canadian publications."

The party at Happy kicks off at 8pm with a hilarious and gruesome short film directed by Wellington artist Kelly Pendergrast and produced by Thierry Jutel, currently head of Victoria University media studies. Following the film screening will be music by Fertility Festival (featuring Jeff Henderson) and the Stumps (featuring Antony Milton) and a performance by artist Tao Wells.