About the Western Bay of Plenty Region
Art & Culture
Tauranga is well known for events it holds throughout the year highlighting, food and wine, music, arts, culture and sporting spectacles. The city is home to the longest-running consecutive single-venue jazz festival in the world – the Montana Jazz Festival – held over Easter Weekend each year. The festival features jazz and blues acts of every description staged in a unique venue made up of bars and cafes in Tauranga’s central business area. With over 220 musicians playing more than 100 gigs at 40 venues, it is the largest festival of its kind in New Zealand.
Tauranga Arts Festival is held biennially in October, providing 10 days of performances, events and exhibitions at a variety of venues. The festival attracts international artists with performances ranging from classical to jazz and cabaret music, dance and cutting edge theatre delivered with About the Western Bay of Plenty region humour and insight.
Brightstone Blues, Brews and BBQs is a boutique outdoor beer festival held in January each year during the peak holiday season. It showcases produce from boutique breweries and a wide variety of barbecue food, with live music from New Zealand and international musicians. With tickets limited to 11,000, the festival is so popular tickets to the last festival sold out within an hour.
Tauranga Boutique Food and Wine Festival is also held every year in March, featuring boutique wineries from throughout New Zealand and sumptuous food from local restaurants and cafes. A host of entertainment is provided throughout the day to ensure a great atmosphere at the outdoor venue.
Bringing together culture, dance, food, arts and crafts, the Tauranga Ethnic Festival is a celebration of the many cultures and nationalities represented in Tauranga. Held in March each year, the festival introduces some of the 70 migrant communities and their cultures to the wider community.
Every two years in November the region’s best gardeners open their doors to showcase their horticultural creations alongside superb visual art from local artists at the Tauranga Garden & Art fest. The sevenday festival attracts visitors to the region from all over New Zealand and overseas, with 120 gardens and art stops and 95 artists featuring on the 2006 programme. The garden line up includes cleverly planted courtyards, large country gardens with rose walks and sweeping lawns, exclusive lodge landscapes, herb trails and more, with sculptors, painters, carvers, mosaic and wood artists amongst the exhibitors.
The new Tauranga Art Gallery – a building spread over two levels and featuring 480 square metres of exhibition gallery space. The art gallery is situated in the centre of downtown Tauranga and meets modern art gallery standards with the development of a range of highly adaptable gallery spaces. Open every day of the year apart from Christmas Day, the focus of the exhibition programme will be education, which will include debates, floor talks, guided tours, seminars, screenings, performances and artist residencies. The gallery is a dynamic environment showing educational, challenging and innovative exhibitions that promote discussion and debate around historical and contemporary art and culture.
New Zealand’s unique Maori culture thrives in the Bay of Plenty. Traditional concert performance and exhibitions of master carving blend with contemporary Maori art to enrich the diverse activity on offer. A number of Marae (sacred open meeting places) in the region provide opportunities to experience and participate in Maori culture and traditions and learn about the region’s rich Maori history. Explanations are provided of Marae protocol and carvings, and there are opportunities to visit Kohanga Reo (Maori language only school for children under 5 years), see demonstrations of Maori art and eat a hangi (Maori feast).