Big bright and bold things are planned for Te Anau from Tuesday (16 Dec) as some of New Zealand’s top street and mural artists descend on the Southland tourist town for this year's South Sea Spray Festival.

Invercargill artist ‘Deow’ (Danny Owen), who founded the festival in 2018, says 15 of New Zealand's best street artists would spending five days in the town telling their visual stories on assigned walls and buildings across three blocks in the central part of the town.

Street artist and South Sea Spray Festival founder Deow at work. Photo: Southland App

“We give the artists 100% freedom, but they usually create artwork and designs that reflect the area where they’re working. Fiordland will likely reflect wildlife, native birdlife, the outdoors and nature.”

When not creating their artwork, artists will also be participating in interactive exhibitions, workshops and community events, Deow said.

Te Anau festival's organiser Margie Ruddenklau said the event would be a celebration of Fiordland.

"It will capture the essence of our landscape and tell our stories."

"It puts towns on the national and international stage,” she says.

Photo: Supplied

However both Ruddenklau and South Sea Trust chairperson Pauline Smith admitted funding had been tough to secure, with the videographer for this years event cut "to make the budget work."

But the Te Anau community had been amazing, responding by digging deep to top up the grant funding used for the festivals, Ruddenklau said.

"A local café has offered to deliver coffee orders to the artists while they’re working every day,” Smith added, with several other cafes offering funding and the local pharmacy supplying sunscreen and insect repellent.

The festival, which began in 2018, has already been a hit in other Southland towns, including Invercargill, Bluff, Gore, Winton and Riverton, where beautiful stories and positive impacts have emerged.

Prominent Bluff restaurateur Haylee (Hayz) Simeon says artwork from Bluff's festival had proved to be a great drawcard to the town, with people travelling there just to check out the murals.

“It’s been a big drawcard, definitely well received. It’s beautified our local community,” she says.

Photo: Supplied

The artists all told their own version of Buff’s story from a wharf featuring the story of Māori settlers to Bluff’s oyster history and a mural on the Eagle Hotel honouring a late local with connections to the Tītī Islands – that artwork created by his own whanau, she says.

“We have a ship and sailor that won our People’s Choice Award.

“We have a shark cage diving experience here attracting people from all over the world and the visitors just love the murals,” Simeon says.

“It’s definitely a great opportunity for our southern towns to have South Sea Spray artists of this calibre come down.”

The locals love to follow their journeys and immerse in the tour of the works too, always within walking distance.

Photo: Supplied

Ruddenklau was equally enthusiastic about the positive benefits of the festival in her home base of Winton.

“It injected pride, colour and energy into our town and created spaces that locals are genuinely excited about,” she says.

“We’ve had incredible feedback from families, visitors and businesses. It’s been overwhelmingly positive. It shows how powerful the arts can be in a rural community.”

The Winton festival was so enthusiastically received by the students at Central Southland College that funding was secured for a special mural there afterwards.

Principal Grant Dick says students loved watching the large mural - of a New Zealand falcon - unfold on concrete slabs at the school and the artists talked their curious onlookers through every move.

“It’s vibrant and colourful and builds a connection with the school for all the kids who were present at the time. It’s awesome,” Dick says.

Photo: Supplied

Smith says artwork in her hometown of Riverton had also been a huge lift and definitely attracted destination visitors.

“I met overseas visitors in Te Anau last week who’d just spent two days travelling around the Southland murals taking photographs."

"They just couldn’t believe it,” she says.

Photo: Supplied

1000 maps have been printed for the Te Anau festival and these will be delivered around town so people can walk the trail, Deow said.

South Sea Spray Trust also publish a book featuring the artworks to help fund the festivals.

Anyone wanting to donate can email: [email protected] or ph: Margie Ruddenklau - 0272667421

Sue Fea is a senior journalist with more than 40-years experience covering police, social and general news in the southern regions.