Whiti Fest buskers all set to entertain Whitianga during Waitangi weekend

Whiti Fest 2021, Whitianga’s first busking festival, has been coordinated by Creative Mercury Bay to showcase local performing artists to both locals and visitors. 

We are very excited to be staging Mercury Bay’s first busking festival! This debut event will offer a range of performances - a unique lineup of musicians, poets, dancers and performers. We encourage everyone to visit the Whiti Fest locations throughout Waitangi weekend Sunday and soak up the stellar local talent. 

Kerryn Wakelin, Creative Mercury Bay Event Coordinator. 

Whitianga busking festival programme

Whiti Fest is scheduled for 7 February from 10.30am-3.30pm and each individual artist will perform two 20 minute sets during the day. Each artist will have a busking hat out during their performance if members of the public would like to make a donation. 

Local performing artists 

Dance –  En Pointe Dance studio performers

Music –  Let’s Go Descarrego! (acoustic folk/punk), Soul Sax (soul/blues/reggae), Scott Burst (rock n roll blues guitarist), Vegas Brown (Vegas Vibes show), Yvette Audain (ukulele), Pete “Rockin Realtor Lawrence" (rock), Dashiell Wallace(violin), Sarah Morcom (piano), Charli MaDougall (ukulele), Dave & Yvette (jazz duo), RELAPSE Band (three piece band), Wild Earth Musketeers (acoustic eclectic jazz), Alex Litherland (acoustic guitar and singer), Svenja Thornber (acoustic guitar and singer), Mike Dayle (bespoke three string blues guitar), Esther Coleman (acoustic guitar and singer).

Puppetry and circus – by Naranjarte.

Poetry – Pete Delete, Howard Saunders.

Pictured Charli McDougall who is a youth performer that is scheduled to perform at Whiti Fest

Busking locations

Buskers will be performing in and around the Whitianga town centre and waterfront. 

• Tūī Stage - Whakau Reserve (Taylor’s Mistake), at the Albert Street end. 
• Ruru Stage - Corner of Hannan Street & Albert Street.
• Korimako Stage - Outside Mercury Bay Museum on The Esplanade.
• Kererū Stage - Whitianga Marina (grassy area outside the Marina/Salt Restaurant on The Esplanade)
• Pukeko Stage - Memorial Park (outside the Library). 
• Roving –  musicians Let’s Go Descarrego (Whiti Fest Ambassadors) in and around Whitianga Town Centre between 12pm and 2:30pm. 

Event and location schedule

Download the pdf on this page to see when and where each artist will be performing. 

About Creative Mercury Bay

Creative Mercury Bay​, also known as CMB, is a Whitianga-based charitable arts trust formed in 2012 to meet the growing need for performing arts events, workshops and infrastructure in the Mercury Bay area.

Their core purpose is to develop and nurture enjoyment, participation and education in the performing arts and contribute towards building a sustainable performing arts infrastructure in our community. They do this through the facilitation of an annual programme of performing arts events; a combination of producing our own events and booking touring events to perform in Mercury Bay. They think it's important that our remote region gets to enjoy good quality performing arts, without having to travel to the big city centres.

The team is made up of three trustees, two sub-committee members, three professional advisors and four patrons, who all volunteer their time and skills to Creative Mercury Bay. The Trust also employs a part time Events Administrator, a part-time Marketing Coordinator, plus various arts contractors to help us stage events throughout the year. The Trust is a strong advocates for the role the performing arts play in being powerful weavers of community connection, generating a sense of belonging, and producing community vibrancy. 

Proudly supported by

Creative Mercury Bay with this event including:Creative Mercury Bay have organised and coordinated this event with the generous support of funders, local businesses and event promotional partners including: 

• All About Whitianga - see yourself here
• Thames-Coromandel District Creative Communities NZ
• Pub Charity Ltd
• Mercury Bay Business Association
• The Mercury Bay Informer
• Destination Coromandel
• Coromandel's CFM
• Thames Coromandel District Council. 

Call for volunteers for Whiti Fest 2021

Keen to participate in Whiti Fest, but not a performer? Creative Mercury Bay are looking for volunteers to help make Whiti Fest a success - including crowd management, helping performers with set up, directing people to performance locations, running our fundraising sausage sizzle or collecting audience feedback.

No event experience is necessary, and the Creative Mercury Bay team will brief you prior to the event and give you basic training if you need it. You just need to be friendly, approachable and happy to help.

Whiti Fest is a half day event (10:30am - 3:30pm), but we’ll need volunteers to give us a hand from about 8am - 4:30pm. If you can only help out for a short time at some point during the day the Creative Mercury Bay team would like to hear from you. Register as a volunteer at Whiti Fest 2021. 

Need more information about Whiti Fest?

Contact Creative Mercury Bay or see the event details using the related links below. 

Please note that Event information may be subject to change. Please confirm details with event organisers.