AUCKLAND WRITERS & READERS FESTIVAL - THE COUNTDOWN HAS STARTED

From the Festival office comes the following:

A festival survival guide

Tip 1: Booking Tickets Online
When you get to the Ticket Selector page on the Edge website and you see a box that says ALLOCATION EXHAUSTED, make sure you CLICK THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF THE MENU TO DROP DOWN THE OPTION TICKET OPTIONS (i.e. for the Circle, if they exist) – don’t be put off!

Tip 2: Tickets
From Thursday 7 May, tickets can not be posted to you when you order them. You must either collect them from the Aotea Centre Box Office.

Tip 3: Collecting Tickets
If you plan to collect your tickets from the Aotea Centre Box Office immediately before your festival event, we’d advise you to allow 45 minutes before the festival event’s start time to make sure you take your seat in a relaxed and happy state (with coffee).

Tip 4: Parking
There might be more pressure on parking at the Civic Carpark than you’ve experienced in previous years (due to work ongoing in the carpark which means it’s working at 75% capacity). Either take a bus, train, catch a lift, cycle, walk or make sure you leave plenty of time to find parking on the day.

Tip 5: What can I take into the Event?
You can take drinks (coffee!) into the ASB Theatre and the Lower NZI Room at the Aotea Centre during the events – but no glass items are allowed. Please make sure you put any rubbish in the bin when you leave though.

Tip 6: Getting a Seat
Ticketed events: All seating for ticketed events is General Admission. Friends of the Festival have reserved seats at the front. Note: You can leave belongings on your seat if you’re attending two consecutive events in the same venue but at your own risk (the doors are locked during intervals between events however). Free Events: It will be first come, first served – there is no way you can reserve a seat for the Free Events unfortunately.

Tip : Festival Bookshop
Do your browsing at the Festival Bookshop while events are on (if you have time to wait and you’re not rushing direct from one event to another). The Festival Bookshop accepts Eftpos, Cash, Cheque and Credit Cards, and they will have all available books by all festival authors on site for sale.

Tip 8: Book SigningJ
ust a thought, but if you’re waiting in a signing queue (and it’s a long one), you will be asked to write down any special wording you want in the front of your book on a piece of paper to hand to the author when you get to the front of the queue. You could get super-organised and do this beforehand on a post-it and have it ready to go … (which means you don’t have to try to juggle a book, your bag, your coffee and an umbrella (!) while you write on your slip of paper).

Tip 9: Coffee
We’ve got two Allpress coffee carts operating in the Owens Foyer this year – hooray – caffeine fueling stations at the ready!

Tip 10: Water
There are water coolers available to all at The Edge®.

Tip 11: 10 Trip Pass
Buy a 10 Trip Pass before Wednesday 13 May and you can use it to select tickets during the Festival (not available after 13 May)Buy a Ten Trip Concession Pass for $139.00 (40% discount on standard prices). Purchase a pass (only by phone or at the box office) and redeem 10 individual tickets (excluding Special Events).

Tip 12: Standard (door) Prices start on Wednesday 13 May
A friendly reminder, from Wednesday 13 May, tickets revert to Standard Prices$23.00 for ASB Theatre events (instead of $19.50)$19.50 for Lower NZI events (instead of $16.50)$29.00 for the New Zealand Listener Opening Night (instead of $24.50)$45.00 for New Yorker Night (instead of $38.00)

Tip 13: 50% Student Discounts continue …
Full Time Students get a 50% discount on Festival tickets throughout

Tip 14: Food
Food is being sold at The Edge® and there are a number of food outlets in the general area.

Tip 14: Festival Information Desk
If you need help with anything, go to the Festival Information Desk to the right of the Stalls Entrance to the ASB Theatre. Lost items, friends and family, general queries, directions, etc.

ENJOY !