Auckland Pasifika Festival 2017

The Pasifika festival is the largest Pacific Island cultural festival in the world and will run for two days at Western Springs Park this week.

The Pasifika Festival began as a joint Auckland City Council and community initiative in 1992 to celebrate and unite Auckland's growing Pacific population.

RNZ reports over the years the festival has featured fashion shows, theatre performances, a pop opera, a myriad of dance groups and more.

Co-founder Roy Vaughan said the very first Pasifika festival was held at Western Springs Park and attracted around 10,000 visitors.

Samoan company Heavenly Water is a family owned business by Vicky Vaai and her partner Jerome.

Heavenly Water will be displaying and selling its range of bottled water and coconut jam at the Pasifika Festival this weekend on 25-26 March.

 The company’s participation in Pasifika is part of the Auckland based Pacific Trade & Invest (PT&I) NZ Pacific Path to Market programme, which is an extended business model that covers a series of methodical steps that are delivered in partnership by PT&I and an Economic Development Agency in each country.

The four companies were invited to Pasifika Festival 2017 under the Pacific Islands Trade & Invest (PT&I) NZ Path 2 Market programme alongside 28 companies from eight Pacific Island countries which are also part of the delegation.

 PT&I NZ is tasked to help Pacific Island countries export to New Zealand and has worked very successfully with SAME for many years on programmes and projects aimed at increasing exports from Samoa.