Otago Polyfest 2021

This year, due to COVID-19, Otago Polyfest was completely online. This meant the rōpū performed to an almost empty Edgar Centre and those who wanted to watch tuned in on the Otago Polyfest Livestream. This was a new experience for all involved and the rangatahi were excited to perform at Polyfest for the first time since 2019, despite there being no live audience.

Typically, Otago Polyfest is our biggest performance of the year, other than competition. It is an opportunity for the rakatahi to showcase all of their hard work without the pressure of competition. However, performing to your peers can be the most challenging audience. Having no audience definitely gave everyone a chance to focus on producing their best performance without the additional pressure of seeing your mates faces and trying to sing over the crowd.

He Waka Kōtuia were the closing performance for the Thursday night session and performed to a small audience of Polyfest volunteers. Speaking to the rangatahi afterwards they spoke of how nice it was to be able to hear themselves over the crowd. They performed elements of their winning Te Hautoka bracket as well as a haka written by member Ethan Rangitūtia as part of the Te Ao Haka pilot program. Ethan's haka talked about people with all kinds of disabilities overcoming obstacles.

Having the chance to perform at Polyfest once again was exciting because we were able to have all of our members, including those who did not make the competition team on the stage performing. It is through Polyfest that our rakatahi gain valuable performance experience that they are able to utilise when preparing for competition.