TAHI Festival

07/09/2026

🧚‍♀️🎸 Meet Sprinkles - a children’s party fairy navigating impossible expectations, mental health and the unicorn party from hell.

Australian performer Lucy Heffernan brings PARTY GIRL to Pōneke – a funny, raw and moving rock ’n’ roll monologue about expectations, mental health and finding your voice.

Armed with an electric guitar and plenty of glitter, Sprinkles is more Courtney Love than Tinkerbell.

★★★★★
“Truly, a show that cannot be missed. Have a laugh and a cry in one sitting.” - Mia Mathias, Theatre Thoughts

📅 16–19 September
📍 BATS Theatre
🎟️ Book now: tahifestivalnz.com/party-girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA8aR-BHJlU

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07/09/2026

Tonight on Wellington Access Radio 106.1FM!

Coming up live from 5pm on Wellington Access Radio 106.1FM I'll be previewing a busy week for theatre, puppetry and comedy on our stages.

From 5.05pm Anna Bailey joins me to discuss Flutter, a magical puppetry adventure with live music returning to BATS Theatre as part of the TAHI Festival from Friday. Anna will also be telling us all about next week's Wellington Puppetry Festival at Vogelmorn Hall.

Then from 5.20pm writer and director Rachel McLean is here to talk about blackpill, a darkly funny and thought-provoking new solo show exploring loneliness, belonging and the online manosphere. blackpill opens on Wednesday at BATS as another must-see in the TAHI Festival.

Then from 5.35pm, Austin Harrison and Sameena Zehra are here to tell me about A Welly Full of Laughs, a showcase of more than a dozen of Wellington's top comedians. They take over the Hannah Playhouse this Sunday for another huge night of stand-up.

Don't miss out!

07/09/2026

Meet Emily and Izzy, our Sustainability Champions! 🌱 Their job is to keep TAHI in check when it comes to all things sustainability, helping our team and artists make more thoughtful choices throughout the festival. 💚

06/09/2026

💚 3 DAYS TO TAHI!

TAHI Festival kicks off this Wednesday, with a huge first week of solo performance across Pōneke — here’s what’s on this week.

And this is just the beginning, with 17 shows across 11 days of theatre, comedy, cabaret, music and more.

🎟️ Tickets from $10, plus pay-what-you-can performances.

👉 Hurry! BOOK NOW: TahifestivalNZ.com

06/09/2026

📻 Tune in to Hutt City FM at 7PM TONIGHT to hear from Aussie performer Lucy Heffernan! 🇦🇺✨

Lucy is one of two Australian artists performing at TAHI Festival this month, bringing her rock ’n’ roll monologue PARTY GIRL to Pōneke. 🎸🧚‍♀️

The glittery chaos of a children’s birthday party collides with a family in crisis as Sprinkles the fairy navigates impossible expectations, mental health and the unicorn party from hell. 🦄💥 Swapping her magic wand for an electric guitar, she’s more Courtney Love than Tinkerbell.

Funny, raw and moving, PARTY GIRL is a story about love, faith and finding your voice. 💚

🎟️ Book now: https://www.tahifestivalnz.com/party-girl

Purple Tape Productions Creative New Zealand BATS Theatre

04/09/2026

💚 TAHI is all about experimenting, creating and finding new ways to make things happen.

So when we needed t-shirts made for our amazing festival volunteers, we headed to the Makerspace at Te Matapihi Central Library and had a go at printing our own with green vinyl on pre-loved tees kindly donated by Paper Bag Princess and Save Mart Porirua.

It’s a small example of our wider commitment to sustainability - making use of community resources, creating only what we need and finding practical ways to reduce waste wherever we can. We think they turned out pretty great! 💚

04/09/2026

💚 Get hands-on at TAHI! Learn from experienced artists, try new approaches and build your theatre-making skills with two practical workshops:

❤️ 12 Sep | Theatre-making from the heART with Dave Houston
Explore movement, improvisation, memory and personal experience to generate material for solo or small ensemble work.

🎶 19 Sep | Songwriting for Performance with Lucy Heffernan
Learn how to turn an idea into a song, from finding inspiration and playing with genre to writing lyrics and finding your voice.

Tickets from just $10, making these workshops an incredible-value chance to learn from practising artists.

🎟️ Find out more and book your spot: tahifestivalnz.com/workshops-2026

TAHI - New Zealand Festival of Solo Performance is an organisation in Wellington that supports the curation and showcasing of New Zealand’s highest quality solo performance. It’s an bi-annual festival gathers soloists from around the nation, and beyond – from established to emerging practition...

04/09/2026

TAHI Creative Resident Zody Takurua is in rehearsal mode at BATS Theatre ahead of FLIGHT CLUB opening this Wednesday! ✈️

Blending q***r nightlife, whānau and Māori pūrākau, FLIGHT CLUB follows a young man returning home with one final story to tell his father.

📅 9–12 September | BATS Theatre
🎟️ tahifestivalnz.com/flight-club

03/09/2026

☀ The Wellington Puppetry Festival is back at Vogelmorn Precinct 19-20 September, bringing a weekend of puppetry, storytelling and wonder to audiences of all ages.

Celebrating this year’s theme, Puppets for Peace, 🕊 the family-first festival showcases Aotearoa’s wonderfully creative community of puppeteers, storytellers and makers.

Across the weekend, enjoy a free outdoor carnival, live shows, hands-on workshops and an evening cabaret, with artists including Jon Coddington, Toro Piko Piko and Joey Sheppard, alongside plenty more to discover.

Explore the programme and book tickets → https://www.wellingtonpuppetryfestival.com/

03/09/2026

Duncan Sarkies is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, playwright and performer, perhaps best known for co-writing the cult Kiwi film Scarfies. His credits also include Flight of the Conchords and What We Do in the Shadows, while his latest novel, Star Gazers, was longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

We sat down with Duncan to talk about his creative practice, storytelling and the making of 'I’d love to have a b**r with Duncan', as he shares insights for writers, solo artists, emerging theatre-makers and anyone curious about bringing stories from page to stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFM7mDUIUco&t=10s

🍺 'I’d love to have a b**r with Duncan' comes to TAHI 16–19 September. Expect stories, audience choices, plenty of laughs and an alpaca or ten.

🎟️ tahifestivalnz.com/id-love-to-have-a-b**r-with-duncan

Each year, selected TAHI artists share their knowledge and experien...