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Polyfest 2024
Murihiku Polyfest is Mīharo's biggest annual event. Murihiku Polyfest, is a week long festival for cultural performing arts. With over 5000 performers and tens of thousands of spectators, both online and in person, this is one of the regions biggest spectacles.
Murihiku Polyfest is open to groups from early childhood through to secondary schools. Groups work on their brackets year long, before taking to the stage in August each year. Due to the success of our combined online event in 2021, Polyfest is now delivered both in person and live streamed on our website. At BestStart North Road we practice all year round for our Polyfest event. Songs include maori waiata and songs from our whanau. We sang a phillipines song that our teachers taught our tamariki.
Before we begin our main event on the stage of Mirihiku Polyfest, we practice and sing at centre and community events throughout the year. Tamariki went on tour to our local retirement village Rowena Jackson to perform our Polyfest songs. The residents were so excited to see the enthusiasm and pride in the childrens faces as they sang. We shared some morning kai and had some lovely conversations with our local residents. Polyfest day arrived, tamariki eagerley got their Polyfest uniform on and waited for the bus. We enjoyed the bus ride and practiced our songs on the way.
Tamariki took the stage and beamed with excitement as they stood proudly and sang their waiata. Linking to Te Whāriki - Polyfest event affirms and celebrates cultural differences, guiding services to ensure children gain a positive awareness of their own and other cultures. It emphasizes the importance of Māori culture and language, recognizing and affirming children's cultural backgrounds. Linking to our New Zealand curriculum - students are actively involved in communities, including those based on a common interest or culture for purposes such as learning, work, celebration or recreation.