Kai for Community Waiheke Food Festival

About this Event

Join us for a free family-friendly celebration of Waiheke’s food heritage, past, present and future. Enjoy produce competitions, demonstrations, workshops, talks, tastings, stories, food stalls, games for tamariki and music! This thoroughly nourishing festival for all ages showcases the island’s culinary richness.

The Kai for Community Waiheke Food Festival is seasonally anchored in the time of harvest. Launched with much success last year at EcoFest 2024, it is taking place again on Sunday 6th April 9 – 1pm at Piritahi Marae. The day will begin at 9am with a pōwhiri for those who have not been welcomed onto Piritahi Marae before.

This year’s festival includes a beautiful culmination of the kūmara-growing kōrero that Eugene Behan-Kitto gave in the 2024 festival, which reignited the legacy of growing kūmara at Piritahi Marae. Led by Eugene and Maikara Ropata’s efforts and supported by the community, Piritahi’s māra nui was planted with kūmara, which will be harvested as part of the festival this Sunday. The crop harvest will begin at 9:30am with an opening by Maikara and Eugene.

Other hands-on activities include an olive preservation workshop from Lauren Colace and a choco-cabana extravaganza with Dorothy Fitzgerald that celebrates everything you can do with this wonderful crop. For the tamariki, there will be seasonal face painting, nature crafts, a giant pumpkin piñata (made by artist Andria Pablo Sanchez, with special themed goodies inside!), giant bubbles, fruit and veg bingo in te reo Māori run by Jacqueline Jackson and other games!

The programme also includes speakers in the wharenui: Em King (author of Re-food) will be talking about food systems, Luke Baker from Growing Point (Tāmaki Makaurau-based group that lives and breathes microscopy, composting and regenerative growing and are the organisers of Dignan Street Community Garden in Point Chev) will be unpacking the garden’s journey with Hua Parakore, and Bianca Ranson, who recently presented at the Kelmarna Festival, will share about the māra kai.

There will be a myriad of food stalls, local vendors, and fresh produce displays and competitions. Bring your garden goodies to the joint Waiheke Crop Swap and Home Grown Waiheke Trust swapping table, or enter them into the adult or children’s categories of the competitions by bringing them to Piritahi Marae between 9–10am.

There are five ways to showcase your own gardening and skills! You can enter your home grown vegetables, home grown fruit, homemade preserves, seasonal baking and autumn floral arrangements. You can also take part in the Giant Pumpkin competition led by Eddie Welsh — bring in your pumpkins for a weigh in! Eddie has grown an amazing array of pumpkins and will have a display and an opportunity for everyone to guess the weight of his show pumpkins, with two great prizes to be won thanks to Kellie Philcox from Sunshine Valley Nursery. The other competitions also have prizes that have generously been supplied by local businesses: Dragon Fired Pizza vouchers, Gulf Trees fruit tree, Recovery Shop vouchers, Waiheke Garden Club sponsored Placemakers voucher, Mia Yeast voucher, and a Waiheke Living voucher.

Food vendors include Turkish mezze, Mexican cacao, Spanish/Italian paella, Indonesian dishes, Argentinian kombucha and delicious donuts — so bring your cash!

All events and activities are free thanks to support from the Waiheke Local Board, COGS and Once Upon An Island Trust.

Food and beverages are available for sale and koha for Piritahi Marae is appreciated.

Walking, cycling, ride sharing and bussing are encouraged at this reusables-only zero waste event.