Wānaka’s appetite for live performance and cultural activity is growing and increasingly stretching the facilities available to support it.
Against this backdrop, the Wānaka Performing Arts Precinct (WPAP) is gaining fresh momentum, with a renewed community-led team building on the work already undertaken and shaping a cultural and civic precinct for Wānaka and the wider Upper Clutha.
Lake Wānaka Arts and Culture Trust Chair Ant Howard says the opportunity is about planning now for the community Wānaka is becoming.
“The question is not simply what we need today. It is what we want this place and this community to be for generations to come. Wānaka is growing quickly, but the civic and cultural facilities that support our community have not kept pace.”
Recent local productions underline that growing demand. Stars In Your Eyes expanded to five performances this year, with all 1,675 seats selling out within 90 minutes and a further 550 tickets requested through its waitlist. More than 120 performers, musicians, dancers and volunteers were involved.
OnStage Wānaka’s recent That Bloody Woman season played to more than 94% capacity across eight performances and involved more than 90 volunteers.
The Lake Wānaka Centre has served the community extraordinarily well for more than 25 years, but its size, stage, acoustics, accessibility and supporting infrastructure increasingly limit what can be presented there.
The vision for WPAP extends well beyond a performance venue. It is for a cultural and civic precinct, with purpose-built performing arts spaces alongside complementary community and civic uses — a place where people can gather, perform, learn, create and connect.
A Business Case is now underway as the project progresses towards consideration through QLDC’s 2027–2037 Long Term Plan process.
The precinct is intended to support local arts organisations, schools, performers and the wider community, while also creating opportunities to attract visiting artists, productions and events.