Jeff Clark talks to Steph Walker (General Manager) and Philip Tremewan (Festival Director) about putting the Christchurch Arts Festival together - and back together again – after the earthquakes.

"If the arts are to mean anything they should be able to address what’s happening for people now and provide a range of things: exploration but some sheer entertainment and a hell of a lot of fun," says Tremewan.

The festival is halfway through - running for eight weekends from August 12 to October 2.

How much of the festival had been decided on by February 2011?

Walker: In February the bulk of the season was nutted out. We were due to sign off on it in mid-to-late April, then launch the programme in May, so the bulk of the festival was there.

Tremewan: We already had a strong Christchurch focus and an earthquake focus from September.

Walker: In some ways we were lucky in that the September earthquake meant we had reframed the festival – before that we already knew we wanted to have a Christchurch focus, to look at what make the festival particular to Christchurch.

Tremewan: Festivals only work if you’re firmly plugged in to the local community – it’s how a lot of festivals have gone..

Walker: After September we started talking to people like Fleur (de Thier) with Tilt, but we were also looking at shows that were about celebrating the city and reclaiming the city...

Tremewan: And then the second quake was much more tragic and it wasn’t just about resilience any more. It had a much deeper dimension to it.

How did you go about rebuilding the festival?

Walker: Immediately after the quake I went up to Wellington for a week – Philip is based there and it made sense, for a while I was glazing over but it was good to step away and be able to think about things a bit more. In hindsight it was good Philip was away at the time; his brain was in a far better state than mine was.

Tremewan: There was a difference between people who were in the city for the quake and those who weren’t, or one and not the other. It changes how you can start thinking about it. We looked at ways at not plunging people into disaster and tragedy but the arts speaking to where Christchurch is at.

Walker: It was really hard because we had to forecast into the future – what would the mood of the city be in August.

The new format takes the festival from a seventeen-day event to eight weekends. How did that come about?

Walker: The format stemmed from the lack of venues; originally we were based in the Arts Centre, when we weren’t there we were in the James Hay (Theatre), the Town Hall or the Isaac Theatre Royal and they had all gone kaput, so we had to find new venues from scratch. We wanted to make sure we had venues all over the city. We knew we couldn’t get them all for the same 17 days, which is how the weekends came about.

Tremewan: We could no longer have the festival we had planned, but the weekend focus and variety of venues advised the styles of shows, then we started going to people and asking if they could come.

Walker: It took us about six weeks to decide the format, a good two months of searching for the venues (probably the most complex part), then matching the venues to the shows. Then getting all the board together and everything resolved. The format has worked really well (although I haven’t had a day off yet): we can use more venues, school venues and it feels a bit less “feast and famine”; there is something to do every weekend for eight weeks, which is important.

How much did the content change?

Tremewan: We had to lose some of the ‘big’ works – for instance Soap. It was partly a question of scale and a question of style.

Walker: One international group was looking at doing a very site-specific walking tour of the city and we were well into doing the planning for that. After February there was no way that would be happening – it would either be in bad taste or as it happens now, inaccessible. Carnival of Souls, which was a co-commission with the Auckland Festival, got shelved because it was a very dark work and there wasn’t a venue.

Tremewan: Tilt was started after September with the theme “the ground is no longer secure under our feet”, which took on a more tragic dimension after the second quake. After the February quake we also commissioned Gareth Farr to write a ten-minute piece of music that explores a little bit of that tragedy but also looks at people coming through.

Walker: Originally Kiwi Kitchen Table Banquets was going to be something more grandiose, almost medieval, but then that didn’t feel appropriate, so we approached the Nga Hau e Wha National Marae as a more community-based event, then the marae was taken over by Cera, and now it is in Visions at Chch Polytech, which changes it again – I’m really fascinated to see what it ends up being. The Loons were thinking of a workshop version of Macbeth using some rubble on the set; now it’s a fully realised production with rubble for the whole thing.

Tremewan: There’s the happy coincidence of both Macbeth and MacHomer being in the festival now.

Was it hard to find new content?

Walker: We had quite a few people approach us. It has been a lot harder to ask international people to come here at the moment, I think because international artists are only seeing the bad stuff in the media, whereas NZ media is showing a bit more hope. A lot of artists came to us saying “we want to do something for Christchurch but we don’t know what to do”. A lot of NZ musicians such as Liam Finn (who gave us our opening event) have been very eager to help.

Tremewan: The Jubilation Choir came to us. The Wellington Ukulele International Orchestra came on board after the brochure was done.

Walker: Just about every performer who came from Christchurch has grabbed the microphone and said “holy crap, I’ve looked around and I don’t know how you’re getting through this, but you are and it’s amazing”. A lot of the others we were already talking to but we had to change dates and their venue. We’ve been impressed at how flexible artists have been. Usually they’d be staying somewhere much nicer with lots of places to eat.

Tremewan: One part of the festival this is almost hidden, but a part that is really important to us, is the schools programme. It doesn’t feature much in the programme but has been really important in these circumstances. We were going to bring the schools to us, now we are going to them and we’ve had a huge response which is great. I was with Linsey Pollak at a school and his wonderful musical inventions mean so much to them.

Are you happy with how the Festival has been received? What do you think will happen moving forward?

Tremewan: At no stage have we had time to sit back on our laurels, but it is really nice to feel that it’s working. If the arts are to mean anything they should be able to address what’s happening for people now and provide a range of things: exploration but some sheer entertainment and a hell of a lot of fun.

Walker: So far we’ve had really positive feedback and great ticket sales. People have enjoyed the experience of finding the new venues, I think. Some performers have realised they don’t have to have a fully realised professional performance space to do a show in. Jennifer Ward-Leland and Michael Hurst did Rita and Douglas in the Rudolf Steiner auditorium, and they said it was some of the best acoustics they’ve had.

Tremewan: It’s been great seeing people getting it out of their system, so to speak. Spontaneous Broadway sold out; people were dancing in the aisles at Liam Finn. There are groups that we want to work with again - we don’t want to repeat ourselves with shows, but groups are wonderful. It is good to collaborate, especially at this time.

Walker: Next time we’ll probably keep it on weekends but not quite as many (we’ve had a lot of issues with building consents and hire) - we still don’t know what venues will be online then. The Isaac Theatre Royal should reopen in 2013, so there is talk about the festival being a part of the launch. The thing we love the most is the price - $20 for everything – which came about thanks to a Creative NZ grant, so we are looking how we can keep the tickets as low as possible in 2013.

Moving forward the Arts Festival can have a very useful role – because we aren’t continuous we have a chance to stand back, plus we are unique in that we work across art forms, so we can act as a facilitator.

Further information:

The 2011 Christchurch Arts Festival runs until 2 October. Tickets can be purchased online at www.artsfestival.co.nz