15 Nov 2021

Murihiku-Southland's Polyfest goes fully online this year

2:25 pm on 15 November 2021

Murihiku-Southland's Polyfest has started today with a three-day online celebration of Pasifika culture and performance.

Wakatipu High School performance for Southland - Murihiku Polyfest

Wakatipu High School performance for Murihiku-Southland's Polyfest. Photo: Screenshot / Mīharo

The event was planned to run in Invercargill in September but the event's organisers, Mīharo, moved it all online as it would be impossible to stage the live event under alert level 2 restrictions.

Last year a two-day online event was followed by a one-day live show.

Organiser Tania Carran said that just was not possible this year.

"We started online today from 10 this morning. We have 75 Pacific Island and kapa haka groups performing," she said.

"Everything started off really well this morning. We were all nervous of course, because we're going online, but we had a brilliant start this morning."

The groups had pre-recorded their performances and online MCs were providing commentary during the event.

The event can be viewed here from 10am-2pm Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.