ABSTRACT
The biennial Christchurch Arts Festival in New Zealand was established in 1965 but was put on hold indefinitely in 2021 after the 2019 festival suffered a(nother) significant loss. The Christchurch Arts Festival was initially established to help the city promote a sense of prestige premised on what the organisers saw as the superior cultural capital of its residents. Despite these grand ambitions – or perhaps because of them – perceptions of elitism have plagued the Christchurch Arts Festival since its inception.
This chapter presents an analysis of the history of the festival and seeks to understand the changing but persistent notion of elitism over the years. Empirical material comprises media narratives, festival programmes from 1965 to 2019 and archival material from 1978–1982 held in the Canterbury Museum collection (including Executive Committee meeting minutes, correspondence and Annual Reports).
