Franklin Multicultural Festival

The Pukekohe Toyota Franklin Multicultural Festival will be held on Saturday 10 April 2021 at Pukekohe Indian Centre from 11am - 4pm.

As the performance side of this day is getting bigger we have decided to focus on the performance aspect only this year not the sports. There will be performances from local schools and groups ranging from Kindy through to adults.

We will have food stalls celebrating our Pasifika, Indian, South African, Dutch, Kiwi, Maori cultures and many more. Our famous vegetable stall will be on show too.

Click on the link at the bottom of the page for approx timetable.

General Overview - (Changed for 2021)

Each year in late March/early April, Puni School organises the Franklin Cultural Festival to celebrate the varied ethnicities of Pukekohe and the surrounding areas. This is our main fundraiser of the year. The Festival is run in conjunction with the Counties Manukau Ethnic Council and sporting bodies of Franklin.

The day is celebrated at the Pukekohe Intermediate Grounds commencing with a sporting competition for 8-13 year olds. Local schools enter teams, generally of 10-12 members to experience new or different sports that they may not encounter in the school yard.

2008 - Kabiddi (Indian bullrush game)

2009 - Ki-O-Rahi (Maori Rob the Nest)

2010 - Crazy Ball (NZ made game to strengthen throwing and catching skills)

2011 - Ultra Rip Rugby (devised by Jeremy Wara and Dameon C from Counties Manukau Rugby)

2012 - Tee-Ball (devised in USA in 1940's)

2013 - Futsal (Brazilian 5 a side soccer)

2014 - Ki-O-Rahi

2015 - Touch Rugby

2016 - Turbo Touch

2017 - Turbo Touch

2018 - Soccer

2019 - Top School

2020 - Cancelled due to Covid 19

2021 - Performances only

The day generally commences at 11am with a welcome, karakia and warm up for the 300+ competitors. Instructions and organisation for the day is given out by the main stage and the teams wearing sponsored t-shirts from local businesses then spend the next 2 1/2 hours engaged in inter-school competitions.

The Puni School PTA/Community provide amusements such as face painting, children's stalls, raffles, bouncy castles, merry-go-rounds, water walkers etc and a huge variety of ethnic foods for sale such as butter chicken, hangi, spicy lamb burgers, sausages in bread, cold drinks, ice-blocks, coffee/tea etc. The stalls open up at the intermediate school around 10am and run through to the end of the festival.

At 1.30pm a prize-giving is held for the sports competition at the main stage and our Master of Ceremonies welcomes the crowds and the Cultural performers who entertain in the afternoon's.

Performances begin at 2pm with Puni School Kapa Haka group being the first to perform, with the whole school closing the event at 5pm. Each group has 10 minutes to perform and we receive entries from indian dancers, bangla dancers, martial arts devotees, polynesian groups, school kapa haka teams, cheer leaders, hip hop dances, scottish pipers, chinese dragon dancers, school choirs etc.

The Festival concludes around 5.30pm each year. The Festival has become an annual feature on the Franklin Calendar over the past 14 years.