One of Auckland's best-known streets, Dominion Rd, will be sharing some of its history in a unique way this weekend.

The Scottish National Theatre makes an exuberant return to ale-house culture with a riotously funny and at times tenderly lyrical tribute to Scottish narrative ballads.

Screens filled with red clouds at dawn start this contemporary circus with hip-hop styling, but instead of a shepherd's warning, they herald a city delight.

Almost halfway through the Auckland Arts Festival, advance ticket sales are at a record high.

One of the subjects of a remarkable new Maori TV series on the descendants of those painted by Gottfried Lindauer is businessman, Treaty negotiator and new chief of Auckland Council's Southern Initiative John McEnteer.

Micahel Hurst dons the Fool costume for King Lear, three decades after first tackling the role. By Barney McDonald.

The cover of Max Emanuel Cencic's Venezia says it all. The Croatian countertenor is all elegance, in dinner jacket and cravat, in front of an ornate wallpaper that might adorn the walls of a Venetian palazzo.

Pictures from the opening night of the Auckland Arts Festival performance by French pyrotechnical wizards Groupe F

Artist Ralph Hotere, who died last week, has been immortalised by a street artist in Auckland.

Just go see this. French pyrotechnical wizards Groupe F offer a superlative, splendiferous, explosive extravaganza. Artistic director Christophe Berthonneau and his team, and Red Leap Theatre, are to be congratulated.

Walking tours - especially those guided by a remote, apparently all-seeing, all-knowing central HQ - are full of tantalising possibilities: where will I be going? How will I know how to get there?

Cantina opens with a velvety voiced crooner promising to "shoot the moon right out of the sky" and honours that with an exhilarating acrobatics display set in the seductive ambience of a 1920s speak-easy.

Pacific Les Mis musical hugely leavened by romance, humour and funky 70s style

Regional polytechnics are important to their communities, and the National-led government is underfunding them, two Labour politicians say.

If you see Auckland Arts Festival artistic director Carla van Zon wandering around town over the next couple of weeks, give her a bottle of water and something healthy to eat to boost her stamina for the duration of the programme.

What Auckland's cultural scene does lack, when it comes to Ateed and Aucklanders in general, is a true appreciation of the goodies that are on offer on their doorsteps.