Festival of Live Art - Auckland

Welcome to the Underground
 

Remember F.O.L.A. [AKL]? The festival that survived not one but two COVID cancellations and then a cyclone, only to Uno reverse and host one of the most unforgettable nights of Live Art in Tāmaki Makaurau's recent history? Well, it’s back!
 

F.O.L.A. [AKL] is full of the kind of art that starts movements and shapes the future. It is your gateway drug to the wildest, most exciting Queer and BIPOC artists in Aotearoa and beyond. In 2025, we are taking over Auckland’s Basement Theatre for four full days and nights with performances, exhibitions, rituals and dance floors by fearless artists who make you feel like your heart is on the line.  
 

We have busted our guts raising funds in a near-impossible funding environment over the past two years. We are nearly there, and now we need your help. With more than ten works — five of which are new commissions — and a free public programme of audio experiences, exhibitions and talks, we are raising funds to ensure we can bring you this festival in the best light and the best conditions. 
 

F.O.L.A. [AKL] is about building a community of artists and safeguarding their artform, livelihoods, and legacies by creating new models within which they can flourish.
 

This is art, but not as you know it!

F.O.L.A. [AKL] stands out as one of the only festivals in Aotearoa run by artists, for artists by a team of industry heavyweights in the experimental and live art sectors: Nisha Madhan, Julia Croft, Nahyeon Lee, and Hannah Moore.

Between us, we have cared for hundreds of artists over the years and travelled the world with our brave and bold creations. You may know us as the team that made a car fly in the Civic Theatre in Thelma and Louise Don’t Die, tied up 8 female rugby players for artists Luke George & Daniel Kok in Still Lives: Auckland, or turned the room upside down in Working on My Night Moves. Our work has helped put Aoteroa on the map as a place that creates world-class, heart-stopping Live Art.

Nisha Madhan is the Creative Producer of Asia TOPA, in Naarm, Melbourne and, until recently, was the Programming Director of Basement Theatre in Aotearoa. As a practitioner, Nisha is driven by relationships and artist care, and will stop at nothing to create space for urgent artistry and vital voices. 

Julia Croft - is a legendary live artist and performance maker and was the Executive Director of the 2024 Auckland Pride festival. Her performances have toured extensively throughout NZ, Australia, UK, Singapore and Canada. She has presented 3 works at Summerhall as part of the Edinburgh Fringe, which led her to win the prestigious TOTAL theatre award in 2019 for Working On My Night Moves. 

Nahyeon Lee - is a theatre producer and filmmaker raised in Aotearoa with Korean heritage. She currently is Silo Theatre’s Programme Manager, has worked for Basement Theatre as Creative Producer and has worked as Auckland Arts Festival's Marketing Assistant for their 2020 & 2021 Festival. Her producing credits include: Terrapolis, Thelma and Louise Don’t Die, Working on My Night Moves, and Pinay. Her original play The First Prime Time Asian Sitcom was part of Silo’s 2022 programme and was part of the 8 writers and directors of the award winning film anthology, Kāinga. 

Hannah Moore - is a Freelance Production Manager and Coordinator specialising in performance art, experimental theatre and large scale events. Hannah spent 6 years as Technical Producer for international transgressive performance festival Tempting Failure and has been  Senior Production Manager with Assembly Festivals in the UK since 2018. She has worked with International artists such as Stacy Makishi, Jamie Lewis Hadley, Split Britches, Le Gateau Chocolat, Tim Crouch and The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein. 

For our 2025 festival, we are joined by a team of amazing artists: Grayson Goffe, Presley Ziogas, Moe Laga, Samuel Te Kani & Johanna Cosgrove, Sung Hwan Bobby Park, SOFT Co. (Jessie McCall & Rose Philpott), Loren Kronemyer, Grecco Romank, Tyrone Te Waa, Samuel Caldwell, Xi Li 李曦 and Guest Curators Falesā Iosefo and Sione Monu for Wheke Fortress with more to be announced.

Standing by while artists and crew are underpaid and overworked isn't good enough anymore, so we are asking for contributions that will go directly into supporting the teams in front of and behind the scenes. You’ll be actively contributing to everyone in the festival receiving fair remuneration for their work as well as the technical costs for their shows: operators, lighting and sound technical hires and weather proofing for outdoor, public artworks. 
 

Arts funding in Aotearoa is in crisis. F.O.L.A [AKL], like many others, has  faced the challenges of funding cuts and reduced resources. This means events that celebrate artists and boost a vibrant society are fading away rapidly. But F.O.L.A. [AKL] is determined to keep going. No matter the challenges, we will always fight to ensure that Queer and BIPOC artists get the platform they deserve to showcase their future-focused mahi to the world.
You will also go down in history as the person who made the party of the century happen at the Basement Theatre, home of Auckland's artistic mavericks.

We created F.O.L.A. [AKL] as a space for Live Art: art by the misfits, punks and menaces of the art world. In 2023, despite the odds, we programmed:

• Dreamy music mirages by celestial musicians Samara Alofa and Larsen Taylor and non-binary beauty by Jazmine Rose Phillips and Janina Nana Yaa
• Sly choreography by David Huggins, Josie Archer, Kosta Bogoievski, and clever theatrics by hyper-capitalist-existential Gold Card owner Vinay Hira
• An adventurous ritual for audiences aged 3 - 103, A Rain Walk, by Andy Field and Becky Darlington (UK)
• Outrageously talented SADBOI’s (Cyprus) full speed, gay, horny and heart broken performance that turned into a 3-hour non stop dance floor curated by PollyHill.
• Samuel Te Kani’s not-for-the-faint-of-heart artist manifesto: Surviving the Necropolis (R18)
• Redesigned the Basement courtyard into an immersive, Liquid light-filled wonderland featuring sculpture by Tyrone Te Waa and immersive visuals by renowned South Auckland-based collective FAFSWAG. 

Our 2025 festival includes artists Grayson Goffe, Presley Ziogas, Moe Laga, Samuel Te Kani & Johanna Cosgrove, Sung Hwan Bobby Park, SOFT Co. (Jessie McCall & Rose Philpott), Loren Kronemyer, Grecco Romank, Tyrone Te Waa, Samuel Caldwell, Xi Li 李曦 and Guest Curators Falesā Iosefo and Sione Monu for Wheke Fortress with more to be announced.

"This energetic and world-class art showcase lit up Central Auckland and the hearts of its people who came out to experience otherworldly spectacles and revelled in joyous collective escapism." - F.O.L.A. [AKL] 2023, Audience Member

View the full 2025 programme here.

To us, the best Live Art in Aotearoa is being made by artists who live in the most potent of political intersections. It is not surprising then that it is underrepresented in the Western-colonial-capitalist regime within which we live today. But the most accurate picture of living in Aotearoa comes straight through the eyes of these very artists, and we want to share that with the world.

"It's been my experience that festivals will ask for a lot with very little in return. F.O.L.A. [AKL] actively works against this by placing artists at the centre of their work and handling their work with care and respect.”" Tanu Gago, Fafswag 

F.O.L.A. [AKL] is about building a community of artists and safeguarding their artform, livelihoods, and legacies by creating new models within which they can flourish. Neoliberal and capitalist structures have failed to create space for Live Art and artists in general. F.O.L.A. [AKL] is here to change that. What we need are alternative modes that centre care for artists. So apart from innovative content, the festival is by artists, for artists, led through care and responsiveness, upholding Aotearoa’s most forward-thinking Queer and BIPOC makers. 

We are led by:

• Actively debunking elitism within experimental and live art forms created through a colonial and patriarchal lineage. Our roles as curators and producers are to remind the world that Live Art has been present in QBIPOC and feminist communities for centuries.
• A deep understanding of why experimental and live artists and their audiences within Aotearoa’s specific performing arts ecology are vital for the local industry.
• Building accessible formats for experimental art, allowing us to shape the audience experience with supported ways to enjoy the work and not feel alienated by it.
• Nurturing relationships with artists by centring care, always working to empower artists who are often sidelined through box office led decisions.
• Using our hard-won international connections to create an international pathway for Live Artists in Aotearoa and vice versa.

Artist Care

We practice intersectional feminist values and strategies daily, and we challenge ourselves to enact these through how we run our festival.

Our approach is empathic, backed with the hard skills to turn said empathy into practical action. A few of the ways in which we attend to artist care are: 

• Fair remuneration with clear, transparent communication around all financial matters
• Space to express cultural needs and desires to the festival team, backed by robust anti-racist processes
• Responsive technical support that prioritises the artists’ vision
• Clear, trusting and easeful lines of communication with the festival team
• Flexible timelines attending to everyday pressures
• Prioritising face-to-face contact
• Support with travel, parking and childcare arrangements where possible
• Kai and collective and social spaces for our community to relax in!

F.O.L.A. [AKL] is also our excuse to throw a big goddamn beautiful party with Tāmaki Makaurau, because we think you’re sexy and it’s just not as much fun without you.