New Zealand Music Month is about showcasing Kiwi tunes and celebrating home-grown talent on our airwaves and stages. Each May, Music Month highlights and promotes local music and since it began in 2001, sales of New Zealand music have more than doubled and airtime for New Zealand music on commercial radio stations has also doubled.

This month www.nzhistory.net.nz harks back to Aotearoa’s musical roots with 31 reasons to love New Zealand music.

Whether we’re punching above our weight, cutting down tall poppies or mumbling the words to ‘God Defend New Zealand’, stories such as those of Kiwi Rock Royalty Split Enz or our 61-year-old New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are a musical history to be proud of.

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Play nicely with others! It seems that everywhere I go experts are talking about the benefits of collaboration, sharing and smart partnerships. I’ve recently attended two excellent and very different events: Webstock and an arts marketing workshop with international cultural facilitator Jerry Yoshitomi. However, a key message from both events was the value and importance of collaboration to help build your business or your audience.

One of the most recent examples of a successful collaboration in the cultural and tourism communities is the development of the Manaaki Card. The card is a discount card for tourists that includes a variety of Māori cultural activities, accommodation, arts and other wonderful tourism experiences.

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‘To enjoy the unique flavours of any country what better time is there to savour its foods and wines than the harvest season?

Ripe to bursting, the Bay of Plenty offers up its orchard fruits, in Marlborough vintners are picking sun-warmed, mellow grapes off the vine, in Central Otago the sheep and cattle are brought down from their summer grazing…’

Read the newest NZLive.com featured article, provided by Tourism New Zealand.

Congratulations to the cultural groups and organisations that recieved recognition for their business acumen this week, when they were named as finalists in Wellington’s premium business awards – the Wellington Region Gold Awards.

In the Vibrant Gold category, which focuses on events and facilities, the finalists are: The New Zealand International Film Festival’s Wellington Film Festival, The NewDowse, Vector Wellington Round the Bays and the Wellington Racing Club.

The Flight of the Conchords, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Ninox Television and Weta Productions are the finalists in the Creative Gold category which
recognises the standout performers in film, media and creative content industries.

The Wellington Region Gold Awards for business have been running for ten years and were established to celebrate the leading businesses in the region. The awards organisers recognise that “successful businesses don’t just benefit the people who run them, or the people who work for them - successful businesses benefit the whole community.” The winners will be announced at the Gold Awards gala dinner on 1 May 2008.

Be sure to check out the wares of some of the finalists over the Easter weekend. The New Zealand International Film Festival kicks off an excellent World Cinema Showcase in Wellington today, which runs until 6 April. And don’t miss more craft-o-rama when Craft 2.0 returns to The NewDowse on Saturday 22 March from 11am to 3pm.

‘There is a disturbing moment in Peter Coates’s documentary charting the construction and installation of Tanya Ashken’s Albatross in Wellington’s Frank Kitts Park in 1986. A crane elevates the mammoth sculpture above the head of building foreman Gary Hogan, who seizes the opportunity to beat back its exposed reinforcing rods…’

Read the newest NZLive.com featured article.