World of WearableArt has cancelled two performances of its 2026 Wellington season after a crew member died at TSB Arena on Friday morning. The organisers also had to change how the show runs backstage before it could go on again.
Emergency services were called to a medical event at the waterfront arena at about 10.15am on Friday 25 September. RNZ reported that police said medical help was given but the person did not survive. Wellington Free Ambulance also attended, 1News reported. The crew member has not been publicly named.
The show, known as WOW, first cancelled Friday’s 7.30pm performance of this year’s production, GLO! In a statement quoted by 1News, it called the crew member “a beloved and valued member of the WOW whānau”, using the Māori word for family, and said the cancellation came “given the impact of this tragic event on our team and the show.”
Just after midnight on Saturday, chief executive Meg Williams said the 2.30pm Saturday matinee would not go ahead either.
“Following the tragic death of a beloved and specialised crew member, World of WearableArt (WOW) has made the difficult decision to cancel a second performance,” she said in a statement reported by RNZ.
“While the result of a medical event – and the production has extensive contingency plans in place – we are dealing with an exceptional set of circumstances.”
Williams said the crew member worked in a highly specialised part of the production, as part of “a close-knit team who are deeply affected by this loss.” She said the company had worked out on Friday afternoon that it needed to change the behind-the-scenes running of the show so it could carry on safely for the rest of the season. Crew spent Saturday making those changes ahead of the evening performance.
According to 1News, the 7.30pm show on Saturday night was expected to go ahead and every other performance in the season is still scheduled. Newstalk ZB also reported that the Saturday evening show would go on.
WorkSafe told RNZ it was making initial inquiries. “We understand the matter has been referred to the Coroner,” a spokesperson said. Nothing has been published about the cause of death beyond WOW’s description of a medical event.
Ticket holders for both cancelled shows are being contacted and can move to another performance or get a refund. “We understand there is deep disruption and disappointment to many WOW fans as a result of cancellation and are so very sorry,” Williams said. “This has been an extremely difficult decision to again make.”
She said the company’s thoughts were with the crew member’s family, and thanked people for the messages of support it had received. The company said it is giving extra support to its cast and crew. A Taste of WOW, the dining event at the InterContinental Wellington, went ahead as planned on Friday.
Losing two shows is a heavy blow in a short season. GLO! opened on 17 September and runs until 4 October, with performances from Wednesday to Sunday each week and none on Mondays or Tuesdays. WellingtonNZ bills it as New Zealand’s largest arena spectacle. The show mixes live music, dance and aerial work with the finalists of a design competition that offers more than $200,000 in prizes. Each finished show runs about 100 minutes without an interval.
This year’s competition drew 108 finalist entries from 134 designers in 18 countries, WOW announced on 18 September. Kayla Christensen of New Zealand won the Supreme WOW Award for Sacred Nightfall, a hand-painted and stitched tapestry that conjures a night goddess from the country’s native forests. The runner-up was the husband-and-wife team of Erna and Karl Van Der Wat, whose piece Armour of Pain was inspired by Erna’s life with chronic pain. New Zealand designers took 15 of the 25 prizes.
The event has come a long way from its first show. WOW’s own history says Nelson sculptor Suzie Moncrieff, now Dame Suzie, started it in 1987 in a rain-soaked marquee to promote the William Higgins Gallery. About 200 people watched. She challenged designers to take art off the wall and put it on the body.
By 1990 the show had moved to the Trafalgar Centre in Nelson, which seated 2000. In 2005 it moved to TSB Arena in Wellington, and 28,000 people came in its first year there. Attendance hit a record of more than 63,000 in 2022. That was a jump of 60 percent on its last year in Nelson, according to WOW.
Over those two decades the Wellington season has grown into an annual spring fixture on the capital’s calendar. GLO! is the latest in a long line of themed productions built around each year’s competition finalists, and every garment on stage is a finalist entry.
For the people behind the scenes, this weekend has been about something other than the show. WOW’s statements have focused on the crew member’s family and colleagues. The company said the support it has received “means the absolute world to us at this extremely difficult time.”
The season has 10 days left. Anyone holding tickets for the cancelled Friday night or Saturday matinee shows should look out for contact from WOW about transfers and refunds.
Have you been to the World of WearableArt show, or do you have tickets for this year’s season? Share your thoughts and messages of support in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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