The community turned out in their droves at Baycourt last night for the launch of the 2015 Tauranga Arts Festival programme.

And organisers are hoping the event will attract locals and visitors alike with a variety of dance, music, theatre and literature.

‘Dirt: Java Dance Company' is bringing two shows to this year's Tauranga Arts Festival – Dirt and Other Delicious Ingredients (for children) and The Wine Project (for adults). Photo: Stephen A'Court.

After a welcoming speech by Mayor Stuart Crosby, festival director Jo Bond introduced the eclectic line-up of local and international performers with a mix of video and static images.

Utilising the newly-developed Tauranga Waterfront, as well as Baycourt theatre in town and locations in Te Puke and Katikati, the two-week event is looking to draw the crowds.

One of the main events is Exxopolis – a 1000m2 walk-through, light-filled sculpture, which opens on October 16.

'Having Exxopolis on the waterfront will give the festival extra visibility,” says Jo, 'and will help make a festival hub of the Masonic Park-Strand area.”

Opening the festival at 7am on Thursday, October 22, is a free public performance of ‘Takiri Ko Te Ata – A Chorus Dawn'.

The waiata has been composed by Welcome Bay's Teraania Ormsby-Teki (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāpuhi) and is the festival's first music commission.

Among the shows unique to the festival are ‘Echo Beach', a dance-theatre performance from Britain, and Christina Lamb, a UK foreign correspondent who has covered Afghanistan for more than 25 years.

Also on the bill is Australian surfing writer Phil Jarratt and award-winning Australian novelist Steven Carroll.

'Getting acts from overseas is all about timing,” Jo explains. 'Putting a festival together is like doing a jigsaw puzzle – sometimes all the pieces slot together and sometimes they don't – but the face-to-face meetings are so important to making something work.”

She's pleased with the programme's community tie-ins, including a family day on The Strand on October 24, a screening of a surf movie classic by the Night Owl Cinema and an exhibition by photographer Bob Tulloch of his portraits of Tauranga Moana kaumatua.

There's also a performance at Huria marae of ‘SolOthello', an abridged version of ‘Othello' that uses masks, and a zine/book-making workshop by Victoria University's printer-in-residence, Sydney Shep.

Highly-anticipated performances include physical thrills of circus shows, ‘Finding the Silence' (Australia) and ‘Leo' (Germany), and family shows ‘The Road that Wasn't There', a 'scary New Zealand fairytale”, and ‘Squaring the Wheel' (Australia) with its comical contraptions.

Several Kiwi artists have made shows especially for the festival, including singers Julia Deans, Annie Crummer and Tama Waipara, guitar greats Warren Maxwell, Thomas Oliver and Louis Baker and classical musicians NZTrio.

For the first time the writers' programme will be spread over two weekends instead of four consecutive days.

Authors include investigative journalist Nicky Hager, his sister and YA writer Mandy Hager, shark researcher Riley Elliott, historical novelist Debra Daley from Tauranga, World War I historian Damien Fenton and sports writer Joseph Romanos.

The Tauranga Arts Festival runs from October 22 to November 1. Programmes are widely available or information can be found at: www.taurangafestival.co.nz. Tickets are available from Baycourt or via: www.ticketek.co.nz