Like the festival's kiwi logo, the program still has a kick in its tail. There is an exclusive showing of paintings by the acclaimed Mexican modernist Frida Kahlo from a private Mexican collection and, sitting uncomfortably among the arts festival fare, is the Edinburgh Military Tattoo making its first appearance outside Scotland - one of the events that sold out before Christmas. And they don't play it safe with Madama Butterfly or The Magic Flute . This year they staged Verdi's compelling, melodramatic Simon Boccanegra - with an international cast, conductor and director. But what makes NZ stand out from other festivals on the international circuit is strong influence of contemporary Maori and Polynesian artists.
Indigenous theatre is particularly strong.
Melbourne's Urban Dream Capsule is one of the handful of Australians invited to attend. They're spending 15 days living in the windows of a city department store as they did in Myer's Bourke Street windows for the 1996 Melbourne Festival. But van Zon is not about to be drawn into a slanging match. There is a different attitude to arts funding here. In Australia there is a much stronger history of political support for the arts.