Covid-19: Stallholders pull out of Pasifika Festival as comeback event planned

Tuesday, 23 March 2021

The annual Pasifika Festival at Western Spring has not been held since 2018. (File image)

Organisers of the country’s biggest Pacific event are anticipating a huge turnout, but say another change in alert levels will force its cancellation for the third consecutive year.

This year’s Pasifika Festival will also have only 114 stallholders, a drop from the 124 planned for the original festival dates in March when it was postponed when Auckland was in level 3 lockdown.

In 2019 and 2020, there were 132 and 121 stallholders respectively. Both events were called off because of the Christchurch terror attack and the first coronavirus lockdown.

Auckland Unlimited head of major events Richard Clarke said he is confident the decrease in stallholders this year, and the postponement, will not affect the event.

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This year’s Pasifika Festival will be held at Mt Smart Stadium. (File image)

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The festival, set to take place on April 10-11, will feature eight villages represented by nine Pacific island nations: Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tuvalu, Tonga, and a shared village between Hawai’i and Kiribati.

Clarke said organisers are expecting thousands of people to flock to Mt Smart Stadium, and the inclusion of music legend George ‘Fiji’ Veikoso is sure to help bring in the crowd.

“The scale of the festival will be exactly the same,” Clarke said.

“It will be the same as how it would have been at Western Springs, and it will still be a Pasifika Festival that people remember and enjoy.”

Two years of the festival being called off at the last minute dealt a big financial blow for stallholders, Pacific businesses and performers.

However, people now understand that Covid-19 lends an air of uncertainty to event planning, Clarke said.

“Everyone’s learnt to have postponement plans, to be on standby … But if there is another alert level change, there will be no Pasifika Festival this year, we don’t have another postponement date.

“We all have our fingers and toes crossed that things will go smoothly.”

The festival’s village cultural advisor Seumanu Simon Matāfai said the event has a history of major setbacks, including a fruitfly infestation in Grey Lynn in 2015 which forced its relocation to Hayman Park in Manukau.

“Terrible weather, the Christchurch attack and now Covid-19 – although the festival won’t be in its original glory, it will still be something for Pasifika to come together and enjoy.

“It’s not just about aesthetics of entertainment, the culture on the stage and the food, the festival is about connection for Pasifika to come together.”

This year’s festival will also feature a line-up of live acts, including Sistema Aotearoa, a Pacific youth choir and orchestra, which will perform on the Saturday afternoon, and Seth Haapu and Lavina Williams on Sunday.

Fiji will close the festival at the Fale Pasifika Village on Sunday at 3.15pm.