The graceful, delicate moves of the Chinese group, the exciting, powerful, thrilling joyous jots of the Punjabi dance groups and the shockingly talented, loud, and powerful voices of the Māori group  it’s still stuck into my mind to this day. What a great experience! Last week, on Wednesday, we went to polyfest! And around 32 schools came! Our speaker on the stage was very welcoming and made everyone’s day. We had a little korero of what our day was going to look like, then we got started. 

First, we just had to stay at our original spot because three stages were still being set up. All of us students all got split up into groups of 7-10 and altogether there were 20 groups. Some of us went with students’ parents, and some of us went with teachers. Either way, they were awesome! Whilst we were waiting, the speaker took us for a little walk around to see what was happening. We just went in a full circle and saw some pretty eye-catching, captivating, astonishing things!  There were lots of food markets in the corner too. Then after having a quick walk around which managed quite well, thanks to the helpers from ASB who held up flags so we could just follow them whilst seeing the big flag they were holding up so we wouldn’t get lost. Once we came back a few minutes travelled by and it was time to go to our first stage.

As we got up, we were told to get in our groups. Then we would be able to leave. How organised! Walking over to our first stage only took a short distance of time as it was quite close to where we were sitting originally. We were settling down to watch the stage for the next group whilst the chinese group was still performing for the last group that was here so we quickly sat down and tuned in. I would say their customers really showed off how graceful the culture can be. When the chinese group did their moves, each was fulled with flow and was very passionate. A few more peformances Fromm the Chinese group and then it was time for the previous group to leave.

The coordinator welcomed us with a joyful;, enthusiastic attitude that filled the audience with laughter and enjoyment. The first performance was from the Punjabi group! Again, like the Chinese group, their costumes were absolutely stunning! I noticed that the leader who was speaking for AC( Alfriston college) was a relative of a past gardens student! She even noticed us and gave us a shout out! Then, their music started to play and that was their cue to start with their peformance. It was so entertaining and astonishly great to see how good they were. They represented their culture very well! After that there was a few more peformances from the same and different high schools of the culture Punjabi. Each peformance had a speaker for that group that would talk about what their culture meant for them and what is was about. The next cultural group was the phillipino group. Their speaker did an inspiring, interesting, informative, amazing speech! Then went on with their peformance. We saw a few more cultures and then we went back to our spot as the first stage was done and the next group was ready to come in. We walked over and went to the Māori stage. We settled in and even though we were a distance away, their strengthening voices powered at us which made us more thrilled and surprised on what was on the stage. Again, the outfits were amazing, and the same with their voices.

Our main speaker introduced us to small skits that we got to interact with! Some of our students went up on the stage and won some prices. Then it was time to head back to school. At the end of the day, we got to have a bit of free time then as some of us were outdoors including me, Mrs Barrowman with springing joy told us there was a surprise inside. All of us, especially us year 8s, wanted to know what was in our space  as we have been waiting on our leavers jerseys,  And to our surprise, it was our leavers jerseys! And right after, we got to sing Mrs Van Tonder happy birthday! This finished off our day with all the year 8s having a long lasting smile! From going to polyfest, getting our leavers jerseys, spreading joy and singing Mrs VT happy birthday, all of it just made everyone’s day. What a great experience! As intermediates and our Tui kapa haka group who came, in my opinion, I think we  had an amazing day and I would also like to thank all our teachers who organised us to be there and to the parents who helped out. In my opinion, I think we represented our school well!