Pasifica - Auckland event

On the weekend of March the 12th and the13th 2016 the festival of Pasifica took place in Western Springs, Auckland . Not for the first time, this was already the 24th time that the festival took place. The idea of the festival is to bring Pacific Island communities together and show the variety of their values, culture and lifestyles.

A special bus shuttle was operating from Britomart to Western Springs and there were a lot of parking possibilities around the area. Also normal bus routes stop at Western Springs.

Western Springs is a park with a lake in the middle and around the lake there were stages of different pacific events.
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasifika_Festival

Islands like Hawai, Fiji, Samoa, but also Maoris of New Zealand had their own stage and around shops with their typical handicrafts, clothes and food.Some of the stalls were run by community groups. For the visitors creative activities took place as well, as weaving, lei making, ukelele lesson, drumming or carving. Each ethic group had their special program, a mixture of music, dancing and information about themselves. There were no seats prepared, the people sat down on the grass with their food and drinks, watching one of the programs.

The entrance was free and there were a lot of people joining the festival, but because the area was so big, there was no bad feeling because of the crowd.  Walking from one stage to the other was relaxing, the birds of the park were not shy and some were begging for food.

At Western Springs you also can find Auckand Zoo and Motat (Museum of Transport and Technology). The park with its lake, ales and birds is also worth visiting when there is no festival. 

The event ended at 4 p.m., very early for an event, and the people left the park quite clean, what is also exceptional for an event :) The festival was well organized, even tents for eventually lost kids could be found and we think that nobody got lost because of the clear information that was preserved.