It was a sunny, breezy day but guess what. Even better it was Polyfest. You may ask what is Polyfest? Well let’s find out. Polyfest is an annual festival of secondary schools showcasing arts and culture celebrating the Polynesian culture and many other cultures held at Manukau Sports Bowl, Auckland, New Zealand. There’s lots of deep history on Polyfest but it started in 1976. So let’s go back in time. It started off in 1976, when Ōtara was described as an unsafe and unhealthy place where only a few opportunities were provided for the residents there. So two year 12 students from Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate, Boaz Raela and Michael Rollo challenged three other schools from Auckland to a performance competition. That year the first ever Polyfest was showcased between Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate, Aorere College, Seddon College, and Māngere College to a performance competition to provide opportunities and showcase culture.
Polyfest is a place where students traditionally compete on six stages, performing traditional performances from cultures such as Cook Islands, Māori, Niuean, Samoan, Tongan and a Diversity stage where performances from cultural groups such as Indian, Fijian, Tokelau, Chinese, Korean and etc. Polyfest is a hands down fun and spectacular place to go to so please considering coming next year.
