Auckland’s popular Pasifika Festival celebrates a welcome return to Western Springs Park in March after a two-year absence. The vibrant event will feature 11 Pacific communities showcasing their unique culture on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 March.

More than 60,000 Aucklanders and visitors are expected to attend the two-day festival, which features hundreds of local and international performers, artists and artisans.

The new festival stage is jam-packed with an exciting array of headline, international and large group performances, including award-winning soul and R&B artists, Aaradhna and Sammy J. Another new addition is the Pasifika Strongman competition featuring four teams representing Aotearoa, Samoa, Niue and Tonga.

Sistema Aotearoa Youth Orchestra will bring 40 Pacific youth to perform a 20-minute orchestral performance and Joel Amosa, the 2018 Lexus Song Quest winner, will perform on the festival stage on Sunday.

Each village will feature a performance stage and market stalls selling signature dishes and crafts unique to the village’s culture. The villages represent Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Tuvalu, Tonga, Tokelau and the Solomon Islands, which will join the festival for the first time.

Festival attendees can participate with each of the unique village experiences, with fale activations programmed throughout the festival weekend.

Auckland’s iconic Harbour Bridge will be lit up on the nights of the festival through Vector Lights, a smart energy partnership between Vector and Auckland Council in collaboration with the NZ Transport Agency.

The free festival will have plenty of activities for the kids and live entertainment for the whole family There will be food, craft and retail stalls where festival-goers will be able to sample authentic food, clothing, traditional arts and crafts, foodstuffs, skincare, novelties and souvenirs from the festival.

The festival’s second day will hold special poignancy as it marks the one-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. And to acknowledge the day, a minute’s silence will be observed by each village at the start of the festival’s Sunday programme.

The Pasifika Festival is delivered by Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) on behalf of Auckland Council, in partnership with the Pasifika Festival Village Coordinators, who represent the different communities and guide the cultural integrity of the festival.