A group of Cook Island performers at a previous competition. Photo: RNZ / Mabel Muller
Organisers of the Pasifika Festival are expecting thousands of visitors to come through Western Springs in Auckland over the weekend.
It is the final weekend of the largest Pasifika festival in the world. It features over 100 stalls selling everything Pacific from kai, to arts and craft as well as interactive displays and a new talanoa space for Pacific writers and orators.
It showcases the diverse cultures of 11 Pacific Island nations: Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Hawai'i, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Tahiti, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu.
Performances from Pacific communities all over Aotearoa are expected across eight Pacific stages with special guest performers who have travelled from Tahiti, Hawai'i and the Cook Islands. All up, more than 1000 performers will take part over the two days.
This year's festival includes the new Pacific Bowls programme which is intended to offer insights into topics that include: storytelling, wellbeing, histories, queer communities and the environment.
This year's Pasifika Festival has been held over three weekends with a Pacific Village Games hosted on 4 March and a Pacific Soul Sessions held last weekend.
Pasifika Festival is open from 9am to 6pm at Western Springs on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday.
Prior to the pandemic the show attracted up to 50,000 visitors over a single weekend.