Months of preparation paid off for dozens of groups as the first day of Polyfest kicked off on the diversity and Māori stages.
The Manukau Sports Bowl was an explosion of colours as secondary school groups donned cultural wear to perform in front of hundreds of people in South Auckland.
For Manurewa High School's Fijian group, the journey to the world's biggest secondary school cultural dance show was long and challenging.
Featuring 20 students, school teacher Shelly Prasad said they had prepared for seven weeks.
"The students took the lead on this, they designed their own costumes, prepared the dance and music, it was a team effort and I'm so proud of them."
The group had a mashup of three Fijian songs, including music from renowned Fijian artists Simi Rova and Black Rose.
The Filipino group from Avondale College were out to defend their title in the diversity continental category.
"We weren't a part of Polyfest for a few years because of Covid, and other cancellations, so when we performed last year, we won," teacher Zamm Mazeed said.
They were one of 14 groups Avondale College will feature in the four-day festival.
"We want to defend our title successfully, the students put in so much effort this year, even giving up their Saturday's to practise."
Epsom Girls College teacher Priyesha Mendis led their Sri Lankan group on the day.
Mendis said she performed at Polyfest when she was a student at Epsom and was excited to see the tradition continue.
Epsom Girls had five groups performing at Polyfest.
"The girls, and I think every student group here, just want to show off their culture. It's amazing that they have a platform like this where they can," Mendis said.
Polyfest opened with a special flag-raising ceremony, followed by a powhiri performed by a mass haka from the festival's matua school, Nga Puna o Waiorea — Western Springs College.
The first day saw 12 kapa haka groups in division three perform on the Māori Stage and 38 groups on the diversity stage performing Filipino, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan, Tahitian, Tuvaluan, Kiribati and Fijian dances.
The Pacific speech competition also kicked off day one of the festival, including a performance from the Arohanui Special School.
Partly funded by Auckland Council through its regional events grant, the 49th ASB Polyfest takes place from March 20-23.
It will feature 239 performing groups from 69 schools across Aotearoa, with more than 8000 students expected to perform on six stages.
The festival continues on Thursday, with students competing on one of six stages — Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Māori, Niue and Diversity.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
SHARE ME