Escape programme
The Escape Programme is Tauranga’s much-anticipated readers' and writers’ festival, affectionately dubbed "the little festival with big ideas".
About
Now part of the annual Tauranga Arts Festival, the Escape Programme celebrates ideas, thinkers, writers and storytelling with a packed programme of literary talks, panel discussions, workshops, and live performances—This is the part of the Festival where you can sit back, relax and immerse in a suite of scintillating conversations.
2025 Festival
We’re delighted to welcome major New Zealand fiction writers Damien Wilkins, Catherine Chidgey, and Anne Tiernan; cookbook queen Chelsea Winter; and authors of riveting, moving and enlightening nonfiction Naomi Arnold, Jenny-May Clarkson, Te Radar and Ruth Spencer.
We’ll debate the state of the media with Jared Savage and fellow journalists; and we’ll honour the late, great Tauranga writer Sherryl Jordan.
We look forward to seeing you with a coffee in your hand and a book in your bag!
