Aspiring Conversations – Wanaka’s festival of ideas, has been cancelled.
The three-day event, presented bi-annually by the Festival of Colour, was scheduled to take place March 25-27, but following the move to the COVID Protection Framework ‘Red’ setting, the Southern Lakes Arts Festival Trust made the decision to cancel the festival.
It is the second time the event has been cancelled due to the impact of COVID-19, and a number of speakers from the 2020 festival were to feature in the 2022 programme which was to be the final Aspiring Conversations festival programmed by founding director Philip Tremewan.
"We were looking forward to bringing people together to listen, question, discuss and reflect on issues that affect us all," says Philip.
"But after the board considered all options we felt we cannot guarantee the health and wellbeing of our speakers, audience members, staff and volunteers, and keep the wider community safe."
Southern Lakes Arts Festival Trust chair Alistair King says: "We know this is incredibly disappointing and we appreciate how passionate our community is about this event. We thank our loyal audiences, sponsors and partners for their support during this challenging time, and in particular Milford Asset Management, Queenstown Lakes District Council, Central Lakes Trust, Creative New Zealand and the Otago Community Trust."
The 2022 programme featured speakers on subjects as diverse as sport, climate change, family relationships, death and dying, and the changing face of the media, along with a season of theatre from Auckland theatre-maker Anders Falstie-Jensen.
Philip says Aspiring Conversations is one of many festivals and events having to cancel with the reverberations felt among artists and audiences throughout the country.
Aspiring Conversations will return in a new form next year as part of the Festival of Colour.
