Nelson Arts Festival 2025
Fresh FM
Produced By: Nelson Arts Festival 2025
Programme Website
The Nelson Arts Festival is 11 days of unmissable arts experiences in Whakatū! 23 Oct - 2 Nov 2025. We take a look behind the scenes and hear about some of the unmissable events coming to Whakatū this October in our interview series.
All Episodes
Artist Spotlight - Hine Toa with Ngāhuia Awekōtuku
Published: 30/9/2025 8:30 p.m.
In this powerful and intimate conversation, host Ceara sits down with Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku—trailblazer, activist, scholar, and 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Award winner—to explore a life lived in defiance of limitations. From her beginnings as a restless working-class girl from the pā, Ngāhuia became a founding member of Ngā Tamatoa, the Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation movements, and a fearless leader in protest actions that changed the course of Aotearoa’s history.
Artist Spotlight - Yes Yes Yes with Karin McCracken
Published: 30/9/2025 8:15 p.m.
Ceara chats with Karin from EBKM about Yes Yes Yes, a theatre show for young people exploring healthy relationships, desire, and consent. Combining humor, solo performance, and audience interaction, the show sparks important conversations while entertaining and empowering its audience.
Artist Spotlight - All the Things I Wish I Could Be with Tom Knowles and Jed Parsons
Published: 30/9/2025 8:00 p.m.
Shannon talks with Tom Knowles and Jed Parsons (aka Jeff Parsnips) about All The Things I Wish I Could Be, a brand-new Kiwi kids comedy singalong. Packed with original songs, laughter, and heart, the show celebrates imagination, friendship, and the joy of becoming anything we dream to be — perfect for the whole whānau.
Artist Spotlight - Delirious with Damien Wilkins
Published: 30/9/2025 7:45 p.m.
Ceara speaks with award-winning author Damien Wilkins about Delirious, his acclaimed novel exploring family, ageing, and life’s biggest transitions. With warmth and humour, Wilkins reflects on the characters and themes that earned the book Aotearoa’s top literary prize.
Artist Spotlight - Heartbreak Hotel with Karin McCracken and Simon Leary
Published: 30/9/2025 7:30 p.m.
Ceara chats with Karin and Simon from EBKM about Heartbreak Hotel, their Nelson Arts Festival exclusive. Blending story, science, and music, the show takes audiences on a raw and witty journey through love, loss, and the physiology of heartbreak.
Other programmes you might like
The Third Narrative
The Third Narrative, exploring life beyond black and white thinking. Join Noa in intimate conversations with guests whose lives embrace complexity and openness with courage and love, offering fresh perspectives on today’s most divided topics and the space that exists in-between and beyond.
Hearth Tales
Hearth Tales invites you to bask in the warm glow of creativity. Join Rich McCoy as he listens to the tales of artists, makers, creative souls and those that love them. These luminaries share their wisdom, illuminating the path. Through their stories, we discover the power of passion, the resilience of the human spirit, and the transformative nature of art and creativity.
Building Bridges - Local Government 101
Christin Schäffner presents Building Bridges - Local Government 101, connecting locals across the Top of the South with how local government works. Christin interview’s political and non political figures gathering Information on issues and processes.