Day two at the Festival of Colour

Renowned historian, theologist and accused (and acquitted) heretic, Lloyd Geering opened the second day of the Festival of Colour as part of the Aspiring Conversations programme. His compelling talk discussed why people’s attitude towards God has changed from a powerful deity to a faith within mankind.

“God is in us whenever we love and care and work for justice,” he said. “With the realisation there is no God, life has lost its meaning, there is no afterlife and we need to make the best of life we can. We all have faith in many forms. Faith is confidence in the future, oneself, family and friends. The church can help people nurture their faith by providing fellowship with one another and providing a place, space and environment where people can think out the meaning of life without having any prescribed answer imposed upon them.”

Aspiring Conversations continued to the call of the conch as one of New Zealand’s most remarkable musicians, Richard Nunns gave an insight into what he referred to as his ‘voices of the land’ or Maori traditional instruments, an instrumental tradition that was lost for more than a century and that he, against all odds brought back to life.

The final Aspiring Conversations session of the day was a thought provoking discussion between poet Glen Colquhoun and writer, Kate de Goldi, chaired by Radio New Zealand National’s Lynn Freeman. Featuring new work readings from both Colquhoun and de Goldi, the session also addressed ‘the questions in the middle of the night’, stemming from de Goldi’s popular book ‘The 10pm Question’.

In the touring programme, Linsey Pollack’s Passing Wind had two performances in Queenstown, delighting members of the audience, both young and old, with his unexpected musical instruments – a carrot clarinet or bagpipes made from rubber gloves!

Evening performances featured the first performance of C’mon Black following the Dickie, the South Island cockie, and his adventures on the Rugby World Cup tour to South Africa. C’mon Black will tour to Cromwell on Thursday 14 April and Glenorchy on Friday.

The evening rounded off to an enthusiastic full house in the Central Lakes Trust Crystal Palace listening to The Bellbirds with their stripped back melodies. While Don McGlashan was unable to join the group following punctured lung in a road accident his absence was acknowledged by both band and audience.

The Festival of Colour continues until 17 April 2011 with tickets still available for a number of shows in Wanaka, Queenstown, Cromwell and Glenorchy. The Festival is generously supported byCentral Lakes Trust, Otago Community Trust, Creative New Zealand and Aurora. For further information and ticket sales, visit www.festivalofcolour.co.nz.