Tapati Festival

What: The biggest Poly­ne­sian fes­ti­val in the world and a cel­e­bra­tion of the Rapa Nui cul­ture, the Tap­ati Fes­ti­val see’s the famous East­er Island come alive, as over the course of two weeks in Feb­ru­ary  a series of music, dance, cul­tur­al and sport­ing events are held to not only pass on tra­di­tions to younger gen­er­a­tions, but also see which can­di­dates of the two clans of the island will be crowned the king and queen of the Tap­ati fes­ti­val.

Set amongst the near­ly 1,000 moai stat­ues of East­er Island, the Tap­ati fes­ti­val fea­tures horse rac­ing, swim­ming, danc­ing, body paint­ing and music – with the high­lights being the dai­ly street par­ties fea­tur­ing loin­cloth par­tic­i­pants clout­ed in body paint, the endurance triathlon, con­sist­ing of the The Pora, Aka Ven­ga and Vaka Ama races and the canoe races where islanders race home made canoes made out of local reeds, the Haka Pei – where con­tes­tants climb to the top of the 300 meter vol­cano on the island and then race down it in a sled.

With the finale of the fes­ti­val tak­ing place in the last two days, with a parade — which tourists can take part in – along most of the island and the streets of Hanga Roa while wear­ing tra­di­tion­al cos­tumes and tra­di­tion­al Rapanui music and danc­ing – before the King and Queen of the fes­ti­val are crowned.

When: The Tap­ati Fes­ti­val takes place over the first two weeks in Feb­ru­ary. Unfor­tu­nate­ly the event cal­en­dar is only released a few days before the fes­ti­val beings, so plan­ning in event when to see each event is tricky – but expect both the parade and the crow­ing of the king and Queen of Tap­ati to take place on the sec­ond and last day of the fes­ti­val.

Where: The Tap­ati Fes­ti­val takes place on the World Her­itage site of East­er Island, with the cen­tre of the fes­ti­val being in the cap­i­tal city of Hanga Roa – where the streets will be filled dai­ly with song, dance and indi­vid­u­als dressed head to toe in body paint and loin­cloths.

Just next to Hanga Roa a stage will be erect­ed in the green fields of Hanga Vare Vare, where the main per­form­ers, dances and music take place, with the fields of Hanga Vare Vare also over­look­ing the blue Seas of East­er Island – which give a per­fect view­ing for the The Pora, Aka Ven­ga and Vaka Ama races.

Tick­ets: There are no charges to watch the events of the Tap­ati Fes­ti­val, and tourists are encour­aged to engage in the street cel­e­bra­tions, body paint and danc­ing ele­ments as well as attend the area of Hanga Roa and Hanga Vare Vare to watch the races and com­pe­ti­tions – with shops even hir­ing out spe­cial Tap­ati Fes­ti­val cos­tumes to tourists to help them get fur­ther involved.

In terms of par­tic­i­pa­tion in events, tourists must be spon­sored by a fam­i­ly to com­pete in the fes­ti­val parade or to be allowed to dance on stage – as the prac­tice for the danc­ing and parade take behind a month before­hand, it requires non east­er island res­i­dents to arrive at the start of the year and find a fam­i­ly will­ing to spon­sor them for them to be involved – the best option before hand giv­en the costs involved in get­ting to East­er Island is to speak to a local tour guide or the East­er Island Infor­ma­tion cen­tre to see if there are any fam­i­lies who would be pre­pared to have you.

Need to Know: The most expen­sive part of attend­ing the Tap­ati Fes­ti­val is unques­tion­ably get­ting to East­er Island – with the best option to get a flight from San­ti­a­go in Chile (flight time of six hours there), how­ev­er flights dur­ing this peri­od are con­sid­ered ‘peak’ and can set you back a cou­ple of thou­sand dol­lars.

If fly­ing it’s also advised to give your­self an extra day in San­ti­a­go and pre­pare for flight delays – owing to the windy con­di­tions that fly­ing across open waters to East­er Island can incur, with any trav­eller also rec­om­mend­ed to get a win­dow seat on the left hand side of the plan for the best views!

There is also a rush for accom­mo­da­tion dur­ing the fes­ti­val, with many par­tic­i­pants opt­ing to camp on the island dur­ing the fes­ti­val – so scope out accom­mo­da­tion options well in advance of the fes­ti­val.

While there are no timeta­bles to the event, it is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed to be there for the last two days, when the spec­tac­u­lar end of the Tap­ati Fes­ti­val along with the final day which fea­tures not only the crown­ing of the King and Queen of Tap­ati, but an after par­ty and feast to round out the fes­ti­val.

More Infor­ma­tion:  For more infor­ma­tion on the Tap­ati Fes­ti­val and on vis­it­ing East­er Island, where to stay and how to get there vis­it the offi­cial East­er Island tourism web­site at: [http://www.easterislandtourism.com/]