While Invercargill may not immediately spring to mind when contemplating New Zealand’s design hot-spots, come June, the country’s southernmost city will host the weird and wonderful, FibreOctave Wearable Art and Musical Extravaganza.

Submissions from dramatically-inclined artists are invited now and close 5pm Monday 11 April 2016.  

The Wearable Art & Musical Extravaganza is produced in Invercargill by Rotary sister organisation, Inner Wheel. Manager of the event, Gaye McElroy says that the event springs from humble origins.

“A friend and I, for our own entertainment, decided to have a wearable art exhibition. All of our members wore something that night and we put on a show for our friends and partners. It went so well, that people were asking if they could come. I had to say ‘Sorry, it’s a private event’, and I hated doing that, so we decided to open it up to the public”.

“It’s just grown and grown from there and we’ve never looked back”.

And if you think that Invercargill is an unusual location for such an artist event, McElroy is more than happy to correct you.

“Invercargill is absolutely an artistic place,” she says.

“We have a wonderful gallery and we have some wonderful artists display there. It’s really quite arty. And May is our art festival month. We’re absolutely an arty bunch.”

There are three sections for submissions to the Wearable Art and Musical Extravaganza: ‘Carnival’ (exhibits that demonstrate the idea of carnivals, merry-go-rounds, parades etc), ‘Wearable-Parts’ (exhibits that incorporate or are made from truck, car body or engine parts) and ‘Open’ (everything else).

The winner of the best overall wearable art exhibit will win air fare and tickets for two to WOW in Wellington.