Frequently Asked Questions

What is Verb?

In a nutshell: we’re passionate about books, the arts, creativity, ideas, humans, artists and you. You can read about what we do and who we are on our About page here.

How much is Verb Festival?

Verb Festival is a mix of ticketed events and free or koha events. We are able to keep ticket prices low and run free or koha events thanks to our partners and our Community.

Ticketed events: The standard ticket price for our ticketed events is $19, or if you are a student or unwaged then you can select the $15 ticket price. Special events (Workshops, Supper Club, Show Ponies, Opening Night Showcase, Ngā Hau e Whā) have different ticket prices: see those events for specifics.

Verb Passes: You can buy a pass which saves you money (about 20 per cent). We have 4-trip, 6-trip and 8-trip passes available here.

LitCrawl & Newtown Sunday Stroll: All LitCrawl events on Saturday night 7 November, and Newtown Sunday Stroll events on Sunday afternoon 8 November are entry by donation (pay what you would like to). All donations go straight into the making of the festival and help us cover payments to artists, sound technicians, venue managers and other brilliant humans who make the experiences. There will be payWave machines at those events for safe donation-making in this Covid environment. (Please note that if we are in Level 2 we will make LitCrawl and Newtown Sunday Stroll registration events as we will need to limit numbers - more on this in our Covid section below).

Free events: On Saturday 7 November at National Library of New Zealand there are a range of free events and activities in the Foyer space between 10am - 3pm.

Verb Festival and COVID-19

Due to the pandemic we are playing safe and only releasing the amount of tickets that would be available in Level 2. This means events might sell out quickly. If an event does sell out at our Level 2 capacity you can join a waitlist so that you will be notified first when we release further tickets (which will happen if we can safely move to Level 1 ahead of the Festival).
*If we are safely in Level 1 a week from 5 November we will release more tickets to cater for Level 1 capacities.

What happens if we are in Level 2 for the festival?

We are prepared to go ahead in Level 2 with almost all of our events. Venues will have social distancing measures in place as we place the health and safety of our artists and audiences first and foremost. You will need to sign-in to every venue using the contact tracing app and QR codes displayed in each venue; and you will need to use the sanitation stations on entry and exit.

LitCrawl and Newtown Sunday Stroll will become a registered events if we are in Level 2 for the Festival and you will need to register online for the events you want to see. We will be updating audiences on our website, social media and via our email (you can sign up for those here).

Refunds if you are unwell: If you’re unwell and can’t attend an event then we are very happy to refund your ticket. We would rather audiences and artists are safe.

What happens if we are in Level 3 in November?

If we are in Level 3 then we will follow Government guidelines which do not allow gatherings in Level 3. Verb Festival 2020 will be cancelled (all tickets will be refunded). We will instead present a mix of online and printed work to honour the mahi of our 2020 writers and readers.

Where is Verb Festival?

Saturday 7 November (daytime): All events will take place at National Library of New Zealand on Molesworth Street, Wellington in various parts of the building. This is a fully accessible building. Please use the COVID-tracer app to sign in whenever you come to a Verb event.

Saturday 7 November (LitCrawl): LitCrawl events all take place in Wellington’s CBD. We use a whole range of wonderful independently owned and operated venues. See the LitCrawl programme for location information for each event. Please use the COVID-tracer app to sign in whenever you come to a Verb event.

Sunday 8 November: All events will take place at Meow, 9 Edwards Street. This is an accessible venue. Please use the COVID-tracer app to sign in whenever you come to a Verb event.

Workshops: Please see the workshops programme for location information (we use a variety of spaces to suit the workshop).

Accessibility

Seating
All ticketed events are guaranteed seated. Meow has a mix of bar stools and normal chairs. 

Of the free and koha events, most of the LitCrawl Saturday night venues have a mix of seats and standing, but the ones that are least likely to have any free chairs are: Pegasus Books, Hunters & Collectors, Arty Bees, Bowen Galleries, and Alistair's Music. The Sunday Stroll events in Newtown are also all in Book Stores and won't have more than one or two chairs (Book Haven, Book Hound, Another Chapter), but sitting on the floor and BYO cushions is welcome!

Wheelchair access
All venues have wheelchair access, except San Fran. Hashigo Zake has a stair lift.

Hearing
For hearing, the National Library and City Gallery all have a hearing loop systems.

Please contact us if you have any specific needs and we will be as accommodating as possible.