A new play written for Anzac Day features in this year's Southern Lakes Festival of Colour programme.
The programme for the festival was launched in Wanaka last night.
The play, called Anzac Eve, is by Dave Armstrong and was commissioned by festival organisers.
Festival director Philip Tremewan said the play told the story of a pair of ''young Kiwi guys and Aussie girls'' who meet at Gallipoli the night before Anzac Day.
Mr Tremewan described the play as both funny and ''intensely moving''.
''The workshop performance takes an honest look at contemporary views on the Anzac experience,'' he said.
The festival runs for seven days from April 21, and includes Anzac Day.
The programme incorporates a mix of theatre, visual art, dance, conversation and music.
Mr Tremewan said highlights would include the world premiere of a second play by Armstrong called Central, the festival's first circus and an Auckland dance work called The Kiss Inside.
A play by Rochelle Bright called Daffodils charts the lives of a ''teddy boy'' and a farm girl, and is set to the music of Crowded House, Bic Runga, the Exponents and the Mutton Birds.
New Zealand singers Julia Deans, Annie Crummer and Taima Waipara feature in the festival.
New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun and the Rodger Fox Big Band are also in the line-up, as well as the 46-strong Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir and the Southern Sinfonia.
The Aspiring Conversations part of the festival will include documentary maker and photographer Craig Potton, psychologist Michael Corballis and writers Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist.
