Winter Wonderfest Whanganui

14/06/2026

WOMEN WHO LEAD: CHRISTINA EMERY ✨🌈

Our monthly hour of power is heading your way next Tuesday! It's free to attend - refreshments can be purchased onsite. This month is our special Pride Week edition.

Our Carla D is pumped to be chatting with Christina Emery — she is proof that ADHD, q***r chaos and pure determination can, in fact, become a leadership style. From talking for a living on radio, to helping co-found and lead Pride Whanganui, to now running her own counselling private practice, Christina has spent most of her career accidentally saying “yes” to things before fully thinking them through… and somehow making them work.

We’ll be speaking about leadership, community, burnout, backing yourself, and what happens when a woman with a microphone decides she wants to make change.

Expect honesty, humour, a few accidental tangents, and plenty of real talk about building community while trying to hold your own life together at the same time.

Women Who Lead is a partner initiative brought to you by the good folk at the Women's Network and Sport Whanganui, with venue host support from the team at Barracks Sports Bar 👏

10/06/2026

FINAL CALL! 💥

Expressions of interest for our eleventh annual Winter Wonderfest close tomorrow, 11 June.

So, if you're keen as mustard to make a submission, hop to it! It'd be grand to hear from you 🤩

📧 Email us for an expression of interest form: [email protected]

02/06/2026

WINTER WONDERFEST: AN INVITATION ❄️🥳

We have received some great expressions of interest for our 11th annual Winter Wonderfest already. Thanks everyone! We love your enthusiasm and your ideas 👏

If you've been pondering an offering, there's still time! So, keep your thinking hat on and drop us a line: [email protected] 💌

Community makes the world go round, and ours is pretty darn special ✨

29/05/2026

CREATIVITY CALLING 👩🏻‍🎨🖌🎨

Long weekends are perfect for many things. If you're feeling the call of creativity, why not enter something into our 'Wintering' themed exhibition for our upcoming Winter Wonderfest in August.

Photos, prints, paintings, sketches, sculptures, craft, mixed media...We are keen to see it all.

Thanks to our buddy Sarah at Space Studio & Gallery for this opportunity to organise another creative collab with our cool community 🤩🥳

05/05/2026

😲 LOOK WHAT AI CAN DO.

Charcuterie platter making workshops coming soon. Watch this space.

23/04/2026

CALLING ALL CREATIVES 🎨🫟📷

We love our partnership projects with Sarah and the team at Space Studio & Gallery, especially our open call exhibitions.

Check out all the details below for 'Wintering' and be part of our upcoming Winter Wonderfest show. We can't wait to see what you create! 🤩

O P E N C A L L | W I N T E R I N G 🖤

Space Studio & Gallery in collaboration with the Women's Network Whanganui are excited to release information on our next open-call exhibition opportunity as part of the annual Winter Wonderfest festival.

In this exhibition Winter is celebrated as something we should actively participate in rather than simply survive. Winter is explored as a lived process - of retreat, endurance, preservation, and quiet transformation - where stillness is active and becomes a powerful vehicle for growth.

To Apply:
Email [email protected] with 1–2 images of your finished work and an artist statement responding to the theme. Alongside your statement, include artwork details such as title, medium, dimensions, and sale price.

Conditions:
Artworks must respond to the ‘Wintering’ theme.
Final selection will be determined by a panel of three local judges. There are no size, medium, or date of completion restrictions.

Submissions Due: Friday, 17th July
Artists Notified of Acceptance:
Friday, 24th July
Selected Artists | $25 entry fee
30% commission on sales
Delivery of Works: 8th August

08/04/2026

WINTER WONDERFEST: YOU'RE INVITED ☃❄️

Whilst we are still basking in the afterglow of La Fiesta, we are also cooking up a community soup for our 11th annual Winter Wonderfest. The magic ingredient is...YOU.

We'd love you to be involved. So, if you'd like to offer an activity or event, know someone who does, or simply have some fun ideas that fit with the festival theme - 'connect, empower, inspire' - then get in touch!

📩 Email Carla D: [email protected]
🗓 Expressions of interest due by 11 June

04/03/2026

FINAL FESTIVAL DAYS ⭐🔥

There is still time to get into the festival action if you haven't had the chance to dive into La Fiesta number 17 just yet.

You can still have a go at pickleball, writing, boxing, creative things, Body Code and enjoy live music. And, why wouldn't you? 🤔

It all wraps up on Sunday 8 March, International Women's Day. There's no better day to finish, it's everything that we've been leading up to for the last month! 💥

03/03/2026

WHAT'S ON: WEDNESDAY 👌🔥

La Fiesta might be in its final week but it still keeps giving. Our pals at the Whanganui District Library are hosting THREE activities tomorrow. Woohoo!

There's also some cycling action with 'She's On A Ride' at 5:30pm as well as our social meet-ups at 1:30pm and 5:30pm.

⭐ Wednesday is also the final day to RSVP for our International Women's Day breakfast event on Friday: [email protected]

It's never too late to get involved...until it's over of course...😁

⭐️ Get into it!
⭐️ Champion women and girls. Engage with the community. Lead the way!
💥 Download a Festival Guide: https://lafiesta.co.nz/
💥 La Fiesta: NZ's Best Women's Fest. 30 days. 90 events. 100+ festival partners. 35 venues across Whanganui. Get into it! 💥

02/03/2026

COMING UP: LA FIESTA! ⭐🔥

We are into our final festival week and there is still plenty in the line-up for you to get into.

It's never too late to get involved...until it's over of course...😁

⭐️ Get into it!
⭐️ Champion women and girls. Engage with the community. Lead the way!

💥 Download a Festival Guide: https://lafiesta.co.nz/
💥 La Fiesta: NZ's Best Women's Fest. 30 days. 90 events. 100+ festival partners. 35 venues across Whanganui. Get into it! 💥