Wanaka's culture vultures were hovering with nervous anticipation yesterday as they put the finishing touches to the 2011 Festival of Colour.
Festival co-ordinator Lindsay Schofield was busy but buoyant when I picked up my media pass.
The Kelliher Collection of New Zealand landscape paintings was being hung at the Lake Wanaka Centre's Armstrong Room while the main auditorium was being set up for tonight's performance of Guru of Chai.
On the Wanaka Hotel lawn, the familiar portable Crystal Palace had taken shape.
At the nearby Wanaka Arts Centre, local painters were having a quick lunch of pies and tomato sauce as they went over their exhibition plans.
On the lakefront, artists Simon Kaan, of Dunedin, Aucklanders Lonnie Hutchison and Flox, Michel Tuffery, of Wellington, and the former Adelaide and now "nomadic" artist Fleur Elise Noble were putting the finishing touches to "Pouwhenua - Billboards: Markers on the Land".
Today's programme is varied and lively. My picks are:8am: Official opening, Wanaka lakefront. If nature produces as spectacular a sunrise as it did yesterday, this will be a very colourful affair.
7pm: World premiere of Rita and Douglas, Queenstown Memorial Hall. After interviewing actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand and pianist Michael Houstoun, I cannot wait to find out how these leading performers will explore the unusual love story of 1940s painter Rita Angus and composer Douglas Lilburn. The Dave Armstrong production also comes to Wanaka on Saturday.
Festival programme
On daily:
Pouwhenua billboards, Wanaka lakefront.
The Kelliher Collection: Past and Present, Lake Wanaka Centre.
WildSouth Film Festival, Cinema Paradiso (full programme on cinema and festival website).
Local exhibitions at Rippon Vineyard (New Zealand sculptors), Grand Mercure Oakridge Resort (fibre artists - COOTS), Gallery 33 (British painter Brenda Hartill), Wanaka Arts Centre (Wanaka Painters Group), and Metalworks (Wanaka sculptor Ernie Maluschnig).
Today:
Noon: Elixir, Crystal Palace (music).
2.30pm: Visual artists, Crystal Palace (Aspiring Conversations).
6.30pm: Riverside Drive, Hawea Flat Hall (theatre).
7pm: Rita and Douglas, Queenstown Memorial Hall (theatre).
7pm: Guru of Chai, Lake Wanaka Centre (theatre).
7pm, 8pm: Hotel, Edgewater Resort (theatre).
8.30pm: Micheline, Crystal Palace (music).
