2023 Te Anau Tartan Festival Biggest Ever

Organisers of the 8th Te Anau Tartan Festival held over Easter weekend are recovering and celebrating after their biggest and best event ever.

Festival activities spanned three days this year and attracted participants from throughout the country. The big drawcard was the Heart of the Highlands stage show by the Highland Dance Company of New Zealand, which performed to sellout audiences on both the Friday and Saturday nights.

The appearance of the Dance Company was made possible thanks to a Regional Event Fund grant designed to boost events and attract domestic visitors to regions that had been worst-affected by Covid-19 border closures.

Festival convenor Kirsty Pickett said the Tartan Festival was put together by a very small team and this year’s had been a mammoth undertaking. The post-event paperwork was still being worked through but already it was clear the goal of bringing more visitors to town and encouraging them to stay longer had been met.

The 12 national dance company members were joined by 57 young dancers from around the South Island and one who travelled from the North Island specifically for the opportunity to perform in the show. The regional dancers who were selected learned specially choreographed dances via video tutorials to take part.

The huge uptake from highland dancers throughout the country also spilled into Saturday’s programme, with 75 dancers competing in the events that have never previously drawn more than around 40 competitors.

“Those families made a huge commitment to be here. They were required to stay a minimum of three nights in the region which will have been a great boost for the local economy,” Pickett said.

“All up there were just over 100 pipers, dancers and drummers who competed and only four of them came from Te Anau.”

The positive statistics continued in the audience figures, with three-quarters of those who watched the show travelling from outside of Fiordland. Of those, half were from wider Southland, but more than 20% were from Canterbury north, including 2.7% from the North Island and 3.8% being overseas visitors.

A new and hugely popular addition to the highland games section of the festival was an Elite Highland Heavyweight Invitational Championship featuring eight of the country’s strongest athletes who lifted, carried and threw championship grade weights in seven highland games disciplines.

“This was an amazing spectacle with cabers up to 6m long – made specially for us by the members of the Fiordland Vintage Machinery Club – being expertly tossed, and farmer’s walk weights of 65kg in each hand being carried almost effortlessly,” Pickett said.

“The athletes loved the atmosphere and we’re really hopeful this is an event we can continue to grow into the future.”

The invitational was won by two-times New Zealand champion Craig Manson, of Ashburton, while the women’s title was taken by Amy Ferris, of Christchurch.

Ninety-two people entered the have-a-go highland games, made up of four modified events designed to appeal to the whole family, while well over 100 aged six and under had great fun in their own highland games field, each taking home a special certificate commemorating their involvement.

The overall winner of the senior have-a-go highland games was Leslie Ladbrook, with Dyani Shepherd-Oates taking the women’s title.

The winner of the Flying Scotsmen running race was Ryder Mikkelson, but it was young highland dancer Stella Collard, of Invercargill, who claimed the trophy for both fastest girl and the fastest overall wearing a kilt.

In the town, several businesses got into the tartan spirit by dressing their stores or shop windows.

The trophy for the winning tartan-themed business went to Jane Gilder Sewing.

With the exception of the evening shows, spectator access to the festival events was free. Pickett said that meant it was hard to be sure how many people had attended overall, with people passing between both the indoor and outdoor venues all day. At the peak, well over 2000 people were estimated to be on site.

While the weekend finished for most on Saturday night, 88 pipers, dancers, tutors and parents took part in piping and dancing workshops on the Sunday.

On Monday, members of the Highland Dance Company of New Zealand enjoyed a trip to Milford Sound with Cruise Milford before flying home that evening. They then had just three days before flying out to the United States on Thursday to perform at the Virginia International Tattoo.

One notable exception to the crew that left for America was the company’s only male dancer and a favourite of the show, Angus Hendry. About to turn 28, the Tauranga lawyer nominated the Te Anau performance as his last with the company. However, although he’s now one of the oldest competitive dancers in the country, the two-times national winner still plans to contest the New Zealand Championship again in July.