The Octagon Experience 2020

The pedestrian trial of the Octagon and surrounding streets, known as the Octagon Experience, started on 27 January and ended on 23 March. While the Octagon Experience was underway the city has hosted the Otago Community Trust NZ Masters Games, Elton John and Queen concerts, the annual Thieves' Alley Market Day and the Otago Southland Pipe Band Competition.

Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature in partnership with Dunedin City Council Urban Design Team contributed three poetry excerpts painted on the road outside St Paul’s Cathedral. These words and other creative initiatives helped create a visually appealing atmosphere that drew people together, both residents and visitors alike. The University of Otago Schools of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability collected data from surveys during the trial, in collaboration with local businesses and public surveys.

Excerpt from ‘God’s Day to You Too, Tree’ by Hone Tuwhare:

The tree wants to put on a good face

           for the Sun’s advent. Her leaves

           bristle and tingle with high

           expectations.

Excerpt from ‘Dada Dunedin’ by David Eggleton:

For Robbie Burns in bronze plucks a quill from a passing gull,

          and writes on air words in praise of Octagon hip-hop.

 Excerpt from ‘Paradise’ by Christina Phoenix:

Octagon pigeons

gossip

on cobbled pavements

And Robbie’s

stone eyes

are fixed on Heaven.

UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals