After a hiatus of three years due to COVID, Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tangata – a celebration of te ao Māori, te reo Māori, and tikanga Māori – was back, bigger and better than ever in 2023!
Held in Tāmaki Makaurau from 22-25 February 2023, the festival attracted tens of thousands of visitors in person, was watched by almost three quarters of a million New Zealanders live on TV2, and was streamed more than 1.8 million times on TVNZ+.
The formal post-event evaluation completed by Angus & Associates shows that the kapa haka festival made a direct economic contribution of almost $22 million to Tāmaki Makaurau and delivered a host of broader social, wellbeing and cultural benefits.