A proper midwinter Christmas!
We’ve never done the Greytown Festival of Christmas before – but woah – I really hope we get invited to do it again next year because – IT WAS FANTASTIC.
Like a mini-Newtown, only at night, with fairy lights. And ice-cold midwinter instead of blazing-hot midsummer. But apart from that… pretty much exactly the same, just slightly smaller.
I gather that the Greytown Festival of Christmas has been steadily growing in popularity and complexity over the past few years, and that this year was the biggest so far. They said 200,000 people came this year, which I assume is over the whole month of the festival, not just the last night, but there certainly was a huuuuge crowd there to celebrate the final parade through town on the final night of the festival.
It’s quite a fun drive out to the Wairarapa on a cold midwinter’s afternoon. As always I set off way earlier than I needed to, which meant we didn’t have to rush over the hill, and which also meant we were able to find the perfect parking spot just a block away from the start of the parade route. Perfect!
As we were there so early, fellow caixa-and-chocalho-player Amanda and I had time for a bit of an explore, a bit of a wander through the main street with all its Christmas stalls, and then a glass of cider and a bit of a people-watch at the White Swan. They even found us a little table outside, which was something of a miracle considering how many people were already there. Brilliant!
Our Green Room was pretty special – we were hosted by the lovely staff at the local Fire Station, which was super-kind of them. We felt very well taken care of – while hoping for no fires while we were getting ready.
Sarah Jane was in charge of the dancers for this gig, and she made sure they were all there in plenty of time to check out the firefighters – er I mean, get some stretches in and get themselves sorted in good time.
On ice-cold nights like this (perfectly clear, no wind, and utterly freezing) I find the layered approach works best for keeping warm while playing. I ended up wearing two pairs of leggings, two skirts, a thermal vest, a long-sleeved thermal shirt, a warm cotton wrap top, a long-sleeved T-shirt, my Batucada uniform T-shirt and a pair of merino wool gloves. And a fairy-lit Cook Island-style flower garland on my head. Lovely.
Apparently the trick for the dancers, especially on a midwinter’s night – is multiple pairs of tights (on your legs) and then a pair of tights with a hole cut in the middle that goes over your head – you put your arms where your legs would normally go. Adds a bit of extra warmth without any additional bulky layers. Toasty!
My buddy Christian on the other hand was visibly shivering as he waited to begin the show – I don’t think he was wearing anything extra under his Batucada T-shirt at all! Mad! I think (hope) he disappeared back to the Green Room to put more clothes on before we began. It’s quite an art, for sure. You don’t want to freeze your socks off before you begin, because then you can’t play properly, but you also heat up super-fast once you do start playing, and you don’t want to overheat either.
We gathered at the top of the street, out beyond the start-point of the parade, and had a most excellent time bopping along to our good buddies the Hoot ‘n’ Annies (some of whom are also in our band) while we waited for our turn to play. The parade route itself is quite short – Greytown not being a vast metropolis – and the organisers wanted to have us play for as long as possible (as did we).
The plan was to play in place for a good wee while to begin with – at least a full song’s-worth – and then start (very slowly) making our way down the street along the parade route. This we did – and I have to say I was quite astonished at how many people there were lining the route – and how enthusiastic they all were. It really was like a mini-Newtown. At night. In the cold. With fairy lights.
They had four or five hot-air balloon baskets (without the balloon) set up down the middle of the street, and people were taking it in turns to clamber into the basket and pull down hard on the gas lever that sends a jet of flame up into the night sky in very dramatic fashion. Brilliant idea – and super-toasty when you’re passing them by while playing/dancing madly and wearing many layers of keeping-me-warm clothing.
I can still vividly picture the people on either side of us pushing ever-closer off the pavement and on to the street itself, kids all wrapped up snug and warm and just SO EXCITED to see us – and the space in the middle getting narrower and narrower as we made our way down the street and the crowds became bigger and more insistent.
It was the most amazing atmosphere – so happy and excited and enthusiastic, and so completely good-natured. It really was an expression of everything I love about Aotearoa New Zealand, and everything I love about being in this band. It reminds me how privileged we are being invited to take part in so many awesome events around Wellington and beyond.
By the time we got to the White Swan, which was where the parade finishes, we really didn’t want to stop playing and dancing, so we didn’t. First of all we gave an impromptu concert to the patrons of said establishment, and then we concluded that the parade simply hadn’t been long enough – so we decided to turn around and go back up the street again.
This is not easy when there’s 50+ drummers and dancers and you need to all somehow wheel around in this too-narrow space so that the whole band is facing the opposite way but still in the same old formation. So instead we decided that each of us should, individually, turn around on the spot to face back up the street again. The back of the band becomes the front, the front becomes the back – and suddenly it’s the big surdo drums who are the show-ponies at the front, instead of the usual tamborims and agogo bells. Brilliant!
Once we’d done a bit of reverse parading back up the street again, we somehow found ourselves with the drummers arranged half-and-half on either side of the street. This left a space in the middle for our dancers – and, as it turned out, half the crowd, who had by this time decided that the only thing to do was to get on down and boogie with us – which they did with great enthusiasm. And there was snow! (Not actual real snow – but pretty close – and just as much fun).
Honestly, it was bloody brilliant. The organisers had to tell us all to stop and go home in the end – otherwise I think we’d still all be out there now.
I really do hope they invite us again next year.
PS The plate of fish ‘n’ chips and salad at the Working Men’s Club afterwards was quite possibly the best plate of food I’ve eaten in my entire life. So good in fact that I just kept on stuffing my face while the fireworks popped and flashed their little hearts out outside. And I do love a good fireworks display.
PPS Hope they invite us back again next year 🙂
Oh! And how could I forget! There was a DJ in a reindeer suit atop a tractor decorated with fairy lights playing techno-ised Christmas hits. Only in the Wairarapa. Only in NZ.
Photo gallery
Photos by Alison Green, Blackwell and Sons, Gina King, Kara Nation, Kelly Etuata, the paper, Sarah Jane’s partner and Vicky Lin. Click on any thumbnail to see the larger version:
