Our Story

The Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival is presented by Arts Inc Heretaunga, a non-profit organisation producing the annual art festival in Hawke’s Bay alongside several other community events and running the Hastings Community Arts Centre. The purpose of the organisation is to advocate for the arts community, to promote the arts in the community and to encourage participation by all sections of the community in the arts and other cultural and educational activities. 

The inaugural festival was in 2015 with a Spiegeltent in Havelock North, to huge success and generating overwhelmingly positive feedback from sponsors, supporters and the public. Fuelled by unprecedented support in our first year, the festival is now an annual event offering a world class programme of theatre, dance, comedy, music, visual arts and an extensive Readers and Writers programme. Attendance numbers have grown each year as people from our region and the wider Aotearoa community connect with our event in some way, through the Festival to schools programme, free community events, writers talks, workshops and ticketed performances.

The variety of arts experiences along with the free community programming allows us to bring together a diverse community for a wonderful connection through the shared experience of the arts. We look forward to seeing you there.