Lift Off is Toitoi’s new annual children’s Festival for 3 to 13-year-olds, dedicated to igniting young imaginations and celebrating children’s creativity!
Lift Off puts children at the centre, with heaps of high-quality events and activities to explore - performances; interactive, participatory, and immersive experiences; workshops; design projects; exhibitions; parades and much more.
Schools programme kicks off the Festival, from April 8-12, with a variety of dedicated performances, workshops and arts experiences for schools and kindies.
Take Flight, a design-and-make project, where students use repurposed or recycled materials to create a set of wings, then take part in a parade and celebration at Toitoi on Thursday, 11 April.
Whānau Day, on Saturday, 13 April, will see Toitoi completely transformed for with theatre shows, interactive backstage tours, roaming characters, immersive experiences, playmaking spaces, storytelling, and even Club Kids with a DJ so you can dance the day away! Bookings essential for: The Messy Magic Adventure, Flutter and Backstage Buccaneers.
Robot Song on Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 April, is Lift Off's headline show this year. This award-winning theatre production comes to us all the way from Australia, with cutting-edge digital technology, startling animatronics, and beautiful original music.
Creative Me (15 – 19 April) is a week of creative workshops for ages eight to 13, designed to ignite kids’ creative curiosity, and nurture and develop creative skills. Workshops include Puppet Making and Performing, Find your Voice, Make a Play in Three Days, and Dance Day.
We’ve created the Lift Off 100s & 1000s Club, a pay it forward ticket programme, designed to leverage collective community support to ensure more tamariki in Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay can experience these impacts of creative experiences.
Do you like kids? Do you enjoy the arts? Can you lend us a hand? We are looking for people to assist us over the two weeks of Lift Off Festival, in particular on Whānau Day, Sat 13 April. You'll be pointing people in the right direction (including finding lost parents), helping artists in the Art Room, stamping Creative Passports, assisting roving characters, helping to keep areas tidy and safe, and joining in the shenanigans back stage. Please contact liftoff@toitoivenues.co.nz for more information.
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