New Plymouth District Council

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Harvest Moon featuring Angus & Julia Stone, Jack River & Bic Runga 31 March 2019 31 Mar 2019 TSB Bowl of Brooklands Australian folk rock/indie sensations Angus and Julia Stone are jetting their way to New Plymouth this March to headline a concert series at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands. The Harvest Moon concert series features a fashionably eclectic line up including Australian artist Jack River and local treasure Bic Runga. Angus and Julia Stone are major emerging names in the Australian music scene and released their fourth studio album ‘Snow’ last year which features the lead single of the same name and the follow-up track ‘Chateau’. The duo then followed that up with a hugely successful sold-out tour of Australia. Taking place on Sunday 31 March at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands, Harvest Moon adds to the Bowl’s stellar international line up this summer including A Summer’s Day Live featuring TOTO, Jefferson Starship and Dragon on 11 January, The Hollies on 1 March and WOMAD between 15-17 March. General public ticket sales begin at 9am on Monday 17 December. Tickets can be purchased at the TSB Showplace box office, over the phone on 0800 TICKETEK, or online at www.ticketek.co.nz.

zero waste station at A Summers Day concert at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands

NPDC and volunteer power keep concert waste out of landfill 17 January 2019 An army of Zero Waste warriors and a great response from concert-goers helped NPDC keep 95% of waste out of landfill after Friday’s TSB Bowl of Brooklands concert. A crowd of 8,500 saw Toto, Jefferson Starship and Dragon rock the Bowl for the A Summer’s Day Live gig. As part of the Toitopu Toiora Taranaki Green Initiative, new recycling and waste stations were rolled out across the Bowl and volunteers were on hand to help concert-goers go green. Just six wheelie bins of rubbish had to go to landfill with the rest of the 35 cubic metres of waste either recycled or composted. “To keep 95% of waste out of the landfill is an amazing result,” says NPDC Chief Operating Officer Kelvin Wright. “We’d like to thank the army of volunteers who did an awesome job on the night and the next day. It’s this kind of can-do attitude which will help our journey to Zero Waste 2040.” Volunteers included members of Taranaki Conservationists and Pare Kore who worked late into Friday night and the next morning to pick up any waste concert-goers left behind. As well as the new recycling and waste stations, it’s estimated that up to 5,500 single-use cups were kept out of landfill by the use of NZ-made Globelets. Food vendors also switched to compostable materials. The Toitopu Toiora Taranaki Green Initiative will feature at other Bowl concerts such as The Hollies on 1 March and Angus and Julia Stone on 31 March and will soon be available for hire at other community events. If you want to volunteer at future events, email us at npeventvenues@npdc.govt.nz.

Two lighting installations at the TSB Festival of Lights in 2019. Called Seed and Nebula Now.

Magic of NPDC's TSB Festival of Lights inspires artists 17 January 2019 Arielle Walker and Jasmine Grace have vivid memories of visiting NPDC’s TSB Festival of Lights as kids and being captivated by the magic of the lights. Now they say they have come ‘full circle’ with a return to the Pukekura Park event as the artists and designers of two light installations at this season’s festival. Arielle, co-designer and co-creator of Nebula Now, grew up in Auckland but would take a trip to the “magical” festival each year while visiting her dad’s hometown and staying with her grandparents for the summer. “The glow stones specifically stuck as an image in my head,” Arielle says. “I remember taking them home and couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t work anymore. It made the park seem like such a magical place and it was very cool as a kid to have that experience.” Arielle created Nebula Now with partner Liam Mullins and it features above the glow stones which are back at the Festival this season. “When we created Nebula Now all I could think of was this magical experience as a kid and wanting to recreate that feeling in an installation,” Arielle says. The installation is a chandelier created from repurposed, recycled Perspex materials and keychains and is illuminated by a UV black light which gives it a surreal, glowing appearance. “I remember saying to Liam if I could have this showing at Taranaki it would be the most incredible feeling. When I saw the open call go out I was so excited, because the Festival was exactly what the work was made for in my head. It felt like the perfect full circle,” she says. Jasmine, co-designer and co-creator of light installation Seed, grew up in New Plymouth in a family of artists. Her recollections of the Festival are associated with a family ritual of visiting the homes strung with Christmas lights, before going to the Festival “as a finale”. Seed was designed and created by Jasmine, Rachel Neser and Molly Brankin during their studies at Massey University, and the concept of the piece is inspired by nature’s stages of bloom and decay. The artwork is made up of a fine chicken wire that becomes invisible in darkness. It is then lit by a projection of digitally-edited video footage of flowers blooming. It was Jasmine’s tutor Antony Nevin who encouraged the artists to submit their artwork to the Festival. Jasmine travelled back to New Plymouth from Wellington to help with the installation of Seed last month. “I’m really glad I got to go along and install it. It felt like so much more of a success, and standing there thinking ‘I remember this place as a little girl’ was a cool feeling,” says Jasmine. NPDC Recreation and Culture Manager Teresa Turner said it was fantastic that the TSB Festival of Lights was now inspiring a new generation of artists and designers. “We’ve had 10 new installations this season including these great designs by Arielle and Jasmine,” she says. “We’re delighted to see home-grown talent coming through with original ideas that keep the Festival fresh for the 125,000 who visit Pukekura Park each season.” Seed and Nebula Now are on display in Pukekura Park until Sunday 3 February. Festival facts The TSB Festival of Lights runs for seven weeks each summer and is seen by 125,000 visitors. The lighting route is 3.5 kilometres of walkways through Pukekura Park. The lights are on for 49 nights. More than 22 staff and volunteers work behind the scenes each night at the festival. It takes five weeks to install route lighting, speciality light installations and cabling through the park for the festival. Last season’s festival added nearly $5 million in value to the Taranaki economy and brought in 9,600 visitors to New Plymouth. More than 55 members of the community have volunteered their time to help festival visitors find their way around the event.

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