Tiny Fest: INTERxCHANGE

Help us uplift the voices and artists of Ōtautahi! Tiny 2026 is arriving at the Bus Interchange and, as we prepare our programme, we debut our Community Activations with INTERxCHANGES, a mini-doc series that features interviews between artists sharing a bus ride.

Celebrating the diversity of our communities' plural voices, stories, and practices, we will pair local artists from diverse backgrounds/phases of practice. As they embark on a journey around town, we witness honest conversations about being a performance/experimental artist in Ōtautahi; while they share their dreams, works and processes and offer performative activations that foster discussions around performance art, mobility, access, creative practice and social participation.

Having the ordinary s/pace of public transport as the background for not-so-ordinary discussions, this series raises awareness of the festival and its next location while intentionally putting different worlds in contact, and providing interesting content for the public to connect with artists outside their performance work.

Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival is a not-for-profit organisation in Ōtautahi, dedicated to fostering a platform for radical performance art and artists. We collaborate with a different venue at each edition, becoming the only site-responsive performance art festival in Ōtautahi. Tiny Fest 2026 is preparing to arrive at the Bus Interchange and its networks as its next venue.

The creative team involved in Tiny Fest 2026 is composed of Artistic Director Janaína Moraes; Business Manager Sarah Aspinwall; Festival Producer Rosaria Ferguson; Curatorial panellists Josiah Morgan, Nes Karakia-Grey, Carol Brown, Ivana Motta; and Creative Coordinator/Design Kat Stefanova 

The Board of Trustees at Tiny Fest includes Jade Cavalcante, Hamish Annan, Bernard Gruschow, Dr Hannah Darroch and El Darrisso

With your help, funding will support us in covering expenses around

• Curatorial and Operational costs,
• Video-making and Editing costs,
• Artists and Creative/Production Team Fees
• Manaakitanga
• Website and Marketing costs

The artists will be curated in late 2025, and the aim is to host a range of artists that represent the diversity of mediums, cultures and knowledges within Ōtautahi. 

The funding raised within the campaign will cover the production costs and artists' fees, meaning that the more we raise, the more artists we can have represented. 

The videos will be produced in early 2026. The plan is to release short reels on our social media in the lead up to the festival, and host a screening of the full doc as part of our festival programme in June 2026.

Our kaupapa is to foster opportunities for Ōtautahi artists and audiences to be seen and connect in deep, meaningful ways. 

Tiny Fest is known for being bold in its programming, not only in the who/what we programme, but how we do it. Following our tradition of being a nomadic festival, we understand that arriving at existing spaces, which are not necessarily designed for artistic expressions, ensures we reach different community segments each cycle while deepening existing relationships. 

At Tiny Fest, the site is the theme, and each iteration invites wonder into the ordinary, with venues fundamentally shaping our curatorial approach and artistic responses.

Partnering with Ōtautahi Bus Interchange as our primary venue, and with satellite events accessible by public transport, our programme opens itself to engage with daily issues while responding creatively to ideas on INTO CHANGE / ENTER CHANGE / INTER CHANGE.  We see this opportunity to explore transformation, accessibility, and connection across diverse communities through artistic expression and community joy. 

This approach transforms a major civic space into a hub for experimental performance while spreading the festival beyond the central city.

The mini-doc series will help Ōtautahi to get to know the artists who make our city. By supporting us, you might ultimately be supporting an artist who is close to you.