Polyfest is a festival where many students from secondary school come to preform and to show people there culture. There are six stages at Polyfest which are: The Cook Islands, Māori, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and The Diversity stage which feature performances from a range of cultural groups including Fijian, Tokelau, Chinese, Korean and Indian. Polyfest, now one of the largest Pacific festivals in the world, began in 1976. Students, Michael Rollo and Mata (Te Kii) Raela, and staff members, Mr Bill Tawhai, Mr Hone and Mrs Heni Green, envisioned the festival’s potential success.
The objective of Polyfest was to demonstrate the pride of cultural identity, and to bring schools and the different cultures between them, together. The inaugural Polyfest festival was held at Hillary College (Otara), and was well supported by students, parents, school staff and the wider community. Despite only four schools participating, the establishment of Polyfest was a huge success.
The festival’s first ever competition winners were Mangere College, Hillary College coming in at second, and Seddon High School (now known as Western Springs College) in third place. As the festival continued to grow over the years, hosting responsibilities moved between schools. However, to better manage the growth and popularity of this event, Polyfest moved to a larger venue in 1996.
Since then, the Manukau Sports Bowl has been home for Polyfest, catering up to 10000 visitors every year, and a mecca for Pacific arts and culture, food stalls from different cultures, and a growing number of student performers taking part in a diverse range of cultural groups and speech competitions.
These past few years have been challenging for Polyfest event organisers, especially for the schools community, students, their families and friends – first with the cancellation of its final day in 2019 due to the Christchurch tragedy, and again in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled the festival. 2022 saw the festival delivered in a historic online livestream event with no audiences.
Fast forward to 2024, Polyfest’s 49th anniversary will once again see the Manukau Sports Bowl come alive with the sounds of passion, pride, and culture as Auckland’s secondary schools return for ASB Polyfest.