Elemental AKL 2020 announcement
Hello event friends!
Due to the evolving situation with COVID-19, the Elemental AKL team have decided to postpone the festival to 1 - 31 October 2020. We are looking forward to delivering a captivating and unique festival that tells the stories of Auckland through arts, eats and beats!
Here’s a quick one-page summary on all things Elemental AKL 2020 to help you plan your event application. Please refer to the programme guidelines for further detail or check out the Elemental 2019 Festival summary.
Festival theme
The festival theme is storytelling – connecting audiences through Auckland’s unique, world-class cuisine and culture offering.
The festival will have three cross-cutting threads of urban, innovation and modern Māori & Pasifika with preference given to events that support these key elements in Auckland’s destination narrative. More information on this narrative is available here.
In a nutshell, we’re looking for events that pack the punch and blow audiences away with authentic experiences.
Event categories
Elemental AKL will be shaped around three categories: Arts, Eats and Beats.
Arts events could include anything from live music to theatre, stand-up comedy to immersive storytelling, art exhibitions, light shows and more.
Eats includes anything related to the food & beverage experience. We’re keen to see events use local produce and suppliers and help us to tell Auckland’s unique food story to the world.
Beats includes all things musical.
Programming the festival
The festival team will select a group of industry leaders to help us handpick events for the festival programme. This group will help to strengthen the festival narrative by championing the brand, reaching new audiences, and maintaining an authentic and high-quality event experience.
Festival audience
With our target audience preferring experiences over things, the festival events will be participatory, immersive, and engaging. Audiences want to be part of the festival community, make memories through content creation and engagement.
The primary audience is ‘Independent Professionals’ aged 25-49. They are active and aim for a good time while wanting to feel relaxed and refreshed. They are often tertiary educated with established professional careers and have high disposable income.
The festival’s secondary audience is ‘Active Silvers’. These are active older couples either without kids, or with kids who have left home. They have high disposable income and like to spend this on experiences and explore new things. Holiday ideals include a mix of adventure, learning, exploring and harmony with nature, visiting friends and family, being independent whilst still feeling safe, comfortable and welcome. They are tertiary educated or in professional industries, have established professional careers and likely to be semi-retired or retired.
Here’s how we’d like audiences to be talking about your events:
• Incredible local talent, artists and performers
• Mind-blowing, innovative and creative experiences
• Unique, unexpected and different from other events
• Rich and authentic storytelling
• Exciting intersection of technology and the arts
• Great customer service, wayfinding and hosting from start to finish at the event
• Ground-breaking sustainability initiatives
Key dates
• 1-31 October 2019 – Round One application round open (invested events and marketing-only)
• 14 December 2019 – Round One events confirmed
• 15 – 29 February 2020 – Round Two applications accepted (marketing-only events)
• 7 March 2020 – Round Two events confirmed
Further information
Further information on Elemental AKL and the application process can be found in the Elemental AKL 2020 Guidelines
Next steps
The first step in the application process is to schedule a pre-application conversation, so please get in touch as early as possible to discuss your event with a member of the ATEED Major Events team email majorevents@aucklandnz.com to request a call back.