Community connection: how we try to make people feel welcome.

As part of the 18-day Auckland Festival, Britomart played host to Street Beats, a series of free events programmed by festival organisers. Latin and line dancers showcased their skills in Takutai Square, Anua Dance Troupe performed traditional Cook Island drumming, the Undergrand outdoor piano brought classical and pop tunes to lunchtime audiences, Jessie McCall and Unitec Dance performed a contemporary dance work called Industry Party (below) and the Biggest Little Circus (above) amused and amazed an enthusiastic crowd of kids and adults with their acrobatic swing skills.  

The World Choir Games is the largest global choral competition, with vocalists in choirs from all over the world sharing their love of music through a diverse range of musical styles. The 2024 WCG took place in Auckland and to celebrate, Britomart worked with organisers to host a series of Friendship Concerts – free, informal and fun lunchtime musical performances by choral groups from Australia, Canada, China and New Zealand.

The Pocket Market is a seasonal market held in Takutai Square that celebrates local artisans and producers, offering them ways to connect with new customers. The market, which was held three times in 2024, features local designers, artisans and craftspeople selling products from ceramics and tea to soaps, food and flowers.

Throughout February and March, the works of Peter Wing Seeto 

(they/them) ringed the Pavilions on our display panels. Peter (top) is a queer multidisciplinary maker who hails from the archipelago of Vanuatu, although these days they are based in Papatoetoe, Tāmaki Makaurau. Their practice focuses on imagery shot on film. For Pride 2024, Britomart featured a range of Peter’s photographs in which their friends presented themselves – or amplified, aspirational versions of themselves – for the camera (one of these images is shown above).

Alongside the Auckland Fringe Festival (a celebration of the best of Auckland’s independent and unconventional arts scene), Britomart curated a line-up of local pianists to take weekday crowds on a musical journey. Over the course of five days in mid-September, the Undergrand baby grand piano was played outdoors in Takutai Square or in the Atrium on Takutai by players of all ages, from budding 10-year-old virtuosos to international concert pianists and teachers. At each lunchtime (and one evening) showcase, pianists took their turn at the keys, performing live renditions of baroque, chamber, classical, pop, jazz, and Latin pieces. 

Britomart Cocktail Hour is a simple invitation for people to connect in Takutai Square over free (and alcohol-free) drinks, with bartenders serving non-alcoholic Seedlip spirits with locally made mixers from a colourful cocktail trolley custom-designed by theatre and exhibition designer Micheal McCabe. Westpac’s tap-and-go terminals allowed people to donate to the Auckland City Mission and the Breast Cancer Research Trust. Local DJs Fraze, Mala, Rain Katayanagi and Maniac Milli supported the giveaways, elevating the experience with fun and mellow tunes for people to listen to on the Takutai Square lawn or at communal tables.  

For the past four years, Britomart has worked with New Zealand Geographic magazine (whose team is Britomart-based) to exhibit the finalists of their annual Photographer of the Year awards. The competition was established to create a space for local photographers to gain greater recognition for their work, and this year, judges combed through more than 6000 entries. Our large-scale panels throughout Te Ara Tahuhu and the Atrium on Takutai in October and November displayed a series of Wildlife, Portrait, Built Environment and Aerial award category entries, where passersby could also vote for the People’s Choice winner.  

The Bersatu Games is a sporting tournament in which Malaysian students from around New Zealand come together to compete. To celebrate the games, Britomart worked with student volunteers to host the Bersatu Carnival, a day-long event that brought a sense of Malaysia’s rich heritage to downtown Auckland, with authentic Malaysian food, batik workshops, cultural performances and cooking demonstrations held in Takutai Square. This free winter event drew large crowds to Takutai Square.

Conscious of cost-of-living challenges and the need to reinvigorate the central city, Britomart marked the winter solstice with a straightforward series of warm and delicious freebies to help kick the winter blues and encourage more people to head into the city. Double Dutch Fries parked their food truck in the square one Wednesday lunchtime, handing out 700 cones of free fries to long and sociable queues while DJ Fraze played tunes. We followed this with a morning giveaway of 600 Amano almond croissants. The in-person connection these simple events offer is palpable, with friends organising to attend them together and sharing their experiences on social media.

To spread some end-of-week cheer to the local community, we hosted six Free Coffee Friday giveaways in partnership with Espresso Workshop, and repeated our Reusable Coffee offer on the International Day of Climate Action in October (this was accompanied by a free low-carbon breakfast served by the team at All Good bananas and oat milk). In late August, we ran a special Daffodil Day Free Coffee Friday to collect donations for Cancer Society Auckland: for every cup we gave away, one dollar was donated. 

Streetside: Britomart is a cornerstone of the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki. This year's event saw more than 30 poets, musicians, performers, authors and artists show up at locations across Britomart for a series of free, high-energy performances, talks and readings (above and above right). Book fans arrived in their hundreds to dash from event to event, catching their favourite writers and discovering new ones. At the same time, visitors could check out a poetry series entitled Voices from the Pacific on the Pavilion Panels, where young Pacific artists voiced their concerns about climate change’s effects on their ancestral homes. The panels were designed by Samoan New Zealand graphic designer Aitken Hawkins (right), and featured a repeated motif of gogo terns, a symbol of hope and change.  

In spring, Britomart celebrated local musicians by staging free lunchtime performances in Takutai Square. From October and early November, Auckland performers including MayJun, Sam V, GreatSouth and Spdrtwnbby (pronounced Spidertownbaby) – showcased their diverse musical styles for the enjoyment of midday crowds lounging on the beanbags or eating at picnic tables. 

In February, March, April, May, October and November, Britomart partnered with dance collective Projekt Team to bring a series of live street dance battles to Takutai Square. At each battle, a panel of judges and Friday-night crowds gathered to see freestyle dancers of all ages competing to be the night’s champion. Spectators were treated to a variety of styles, including street dance, popping, krump and open style. 

Throughout February, March, June, October and November, the New Zealand Korean Dance Association brought their dance routines to Takutai Square with monthly K-Pop Sundays – a series of fun and lively K-Pop events where fans of the genre get involved in Random Dance Play (a popular game where participants jump in to dance if they know the choreography of a K-Pop song). As a genre, Korean Pop has a real focus on choreography and teamwork, making it a fun and easy way to connect with other fans through dance and community. In 2024, NZKDA held 10 Random Dance Play sessions in the square, with sessions continuing through the summer.

Late Night Art is an annual event organised by Heart of the City, the central city business association. This year for the event Britomart worked with Projekt Team to present Ko Au: He Pō, a dance performance blending street dance, traditional movement and contemporary dance to create bite-sized short performance pieces about the search for identity, drawing large crowds to Takutai Square and Te Ara Tahuhu. Projekt Team is a South Auckland-based dance collective that aims to create welcoming spaces where street dancers can meet up and learn from others in the community.

To celebrate the Māori new year, Britomart invited artists Hāmiora Bailey and Robyn Pryor to create a series of artworks for our Pavilion and Atrium panels. Their simple but striking graphic works represented the stars of the Matariki cluster; and each was accompanied by an affirmation in Te Reo Māori and English for stargazers to ponder as they looked towards the sky. For Hāmiora and Robyn, the project was a way for them to explore their ongoing tuakana-teina relationship, where an elder mentors a younger person, and the younger person shares their own knowledge and perspective with the elder. 

To celebrate Matariki and Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, Britomart hosted a series of kapa haka and waiata performances in Takutai Square. Talented students from James Cook High School’s Te Kapunga and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hoani Waititi Marae (right) brought out big lunchtime crowds. Videos of the kapa haka performers proved a TikTok hit, gathering over three million views this year.

For the third year running, Britomart has worked with the high school at Hoani Waititi Marae to offer its students a careers orientation programme aimed at giving them insights into a wide range of career and tertiary education options. The first part of the programme involved introducing students to Britomart businesses in a series of workshops that outlined possible career paths in particular industries. The participants included fashion designer Karen Walker, Comensa Group (owners of Café Hanoi, Ghost Street and Perch), interior design firm Tailor Inc., business advisory group EY, and Westpac. In the second phase of the programme, five Hoani Waititi students elected to take work placements at EY and Café Hanoi for one day a week for six weeks. The programme is continuing to evolve, and will be offered to students again in 2025. 

To encourage action on climate change (and bring a little extra greenery into the square), Britomart’s annual Greening the City activation is a three-day giveaway of native trees from The Landing, a Bay of Islands heritage estate under the stewardship of Cooper and Company. In exchange for an optional donation to the Native Forest Restoration Trust, visitors to the Greening the City pop-up could select their own native sapling, including mānuka, oioi, kawakawa, ti kōuka, pōhutukawa and more. The Landing’s nursery manager, Caleb Scott, hosted free half-hour workshops each day – one for children and one for anyone else interested – covering the basics of planting and successfully raising native trees. Across the three days, over 6,000 native trees were distributed and $8000 was raised for the trust.

Britomart’s coffee-oriented activation, Reusable Tuesday, encouraged the use of reusable cups, offering free coffee to anyone with one at any Britomart cafe, including Amano, Daily Bread, Espresso Workshop, kingi, Miann, Ortolana, The Store and Yeah Bowl. The events were also notable for the way they encouraged in-person connection, as groups from offices headed out together to take advantage of the offer. The event resulted in about 1700 people enjoying a free brew.

For this year’s International Day of Climate Action in October, Britomart joined forces with three sustainable local brands and all of Britomart’s cafes to provide free breakfast and coffee in Takutai Square and throughout the precinct. With the support of All Good, Blue Frog, Raglan Coconut Yoghurt and Decent Packaging, 700 low-carbon breakfast bowls were served. In addition to the giveaway, anyone who brought a clean, lidded reusable cup received a free cup of coffee from Britomart cafes for our Reusable Thursday event.