Oranges at Halftime: Rugby and the Kiwi Experience

The relationship between rugby and Kiwi culture is explored in the free exhibition, Oranges at Halftime: Rugby and the Kiwi Experience, visiting towns throughout New Zealand during August, September and October as part of the REAL New Zealand Festival.

Rugby’s grassroots are woven together with the DNA of Kiwi culture. Our culture and our country have been shaped, in ways small and large, by our fascination with the oval ball.

The touring exhibition Oranges at Halftime: Rugby and the Kiwi Experience gets stuck into this fascinating and sometimes surprising relationship. It celebrates the dads who coached nippers on the school field, the mums who washed the muddy shorts, the loyal fans on the sidelines in the rain, and the determined souls on the field playing their hearts out for their mates.

The exhibition is completely free to visit. It is part of the REAL New Zealand Festival, a nationwide celebration of the things we love most about New Zealand.

Exhibition visitors will step into a golden age of grassroots rugby to explore what the game means in New Zealand. The exhibition has a focus on the post-war years through to the 1970s, uncovering the shaping influence of rugby throughout NZ life.

Taste life at home in a true-blue rugby family, move on to explore the diversity in the crowds on the sidelines at a match, step on to the paddock where players put their pride and heart into every match, and finally settle into the clubrooms to learn about different kinds of clubs and their role at the heart of so many Kiwi communities.

Features of the exhibition include:

• Take on your friends and family and answer every question in the Halftime Challenge.

• Add your story to Keith Quinn’s famous collection of anecdotes. A video kiosk inside the trailer allows you to share your favourite rugby tales with Keith.

• Play selector and vote for the Grassroots XV, a team of quirky, cheeky and heroic characters from the lesser-known corners of Kiwi footy history.

• Discover classic recipes that filled the tanks of NZ’s rugby legends before a big game.

The exhibition will be touring the nation in a transforming trailer managed by The Roadshow. At each stop it folds out into a huge space containing a full exhibition experience.

At many stops the trailer will be part of a larger local event, adding to the entertainment opportunity.

Opening hours are 10am to 4pm daily. Most stops are for only one or two days.

The exhibition team particularly encourage those who have been involved in rugby, either playing or helping in other ways, to come and share their stories at the recording station. Keith Quinn will not be the only one to inherit these stories; they will also be passed to the team at NZHistory.net, who will add them to their collection of valued records of Kiwi life.

The Oranges at Halftime touring exhibition is a collaboration between the National Science-Technology Roadshow Trust and Eklektus Inc. The exhibition was funded by the NZ 2011 Festival Lottery Fund as part of the REAL New Zealand Festival.

The National Science-Technology Roadshow Trust (The Roadshow) specialises in developing and delivering nationally, quality science, innovation and technology education programmes and exhibitions for students, teachers and the wider community. Annually over 200,000 people directly engage with Roadshow projects. The majority of their exhibitions are toured and delivered in unique fold out exhibition trailers as can be seen with Oranges at Halftime.

Eklektus Inc. works internationally on creating, developing and producing exhibitions and exploring cutting-edge visitor experiences. In New Zealand, Eklektus Inc. has recently worked with the WaitomoGlowworm Caves, New Zealand Post, Victoria University of Wellington and the St James Theatre.