Art lovers rejoice
Live music, food, garden-related trade stores, tiny houses, guest speakers and art displays are all part of the fun at Bloom in the Bay.
Words Monique Balvert-O’Connor Photos supplied
Dubbed a little like a festival within a festival, the Craigs Investment Partners’ Bloom in the Bay event has become a vibrant part of the biennial Bay of Plenty Garden and Art Festival. And there will certainly be plenty to enthral this year at the 17-20 November family-friendly event, assures festival director Marc Anderson.
Bloom in the Bay will be held at Tauranga Racecourse, where there’s room aplenty for the array of planned activities and stalls. New to the event this year is, for example, the inclusion of 30 garden-related trade stores offering their wares for sale – this exhibition space will be called Bloom Plaza. Also a first, will be an array of tiny houses and cabins that will form a charming wee art village, Marc explains, as there will be an artist set up in each.
Entry to Bloom in the Bay is free to BOP Garden and Art Festival attendees and to children under 14, and will cost adults without festival tickets only $5. The idea is to drop in whenever it suits on the four festival days and enjoy the many wonders of this colourful event, Marc says. It will run from 9.30am to 6pm on the first three festival days, and from 9.30am until 3pm on the Sunday.
The food options will be many, the bar will be open, and the live music lineup will include Kokomo Blues and Caitriona Fallon, for example, as well as emerging talent. There will be a “Make Art Not Waste” Envirohub catwalk event on the Saturday, and a scintillating mix of environment-focused speakers. Discover more about living predator-free, growing microgreens and making seed bombs, find out what endangered species we have living on our beaches, and hear from an award-winning photographer who has been cuddled by a whale
and attacked by an octopus.
Check the gardenandartfestival.co.nz website in the lead-up to the festival for the timing of the different Bloom in the Bay events and performances.
Meanwhile, tickets are selling fast for the festival’s Long Lunch, with gardening guru (and former NZ Gardener editor) Lynda Hallinan as guest speaker. A three-course meal, glass of bubbles on arrival, live music and entertainment will all be on offer.
And art lovers, rejoice: The festival includes more artists than ever and an Art Studio Trail, within the main trail, is being introduced. The festival map is marked with these 22 purpose-built art studios (see photos of
some of the art to be found in these studios).
Festival tickets are $40 for one day, and $65 for multiple days, and are available at Palmers Bethlehem (the festival’s trail sponsors), Décor Garden World, Pacifica Home & Garden Store, i-SITE Tauranga, Te Puke Florist, Katch Katikati information centre, online at Eventfinda (service fees may apply) and on the festival website.
The Bay of Plenty Garden and Art Festival is sponsored by Bayleys.
