We absolutely love Wellington Sevens weekend…

…because Wellington goes collectively mad, becomes completely extravert for two days and dresses up in all manner of nutty costumes. It’s totally awesome!

Batucada has been taking part in the Sevens festivities since 2003, and once again this year we were invited to lead the Wellington International Rugby Sevens parade.

It was a good day for parading through the city streets. Sunny but not too sunny (and therefore not too insanely hot for drumming), no wind, and great crowds as usual.

Batucada dancer in the Sevens parade
Photo by Fairfax NZ

At the end of the parade route we line up on either side of the entrance to Civic Square and drum the teams through into Civic Square itself, which is always fun. For a start we get a great close-up view of all those lovely rugby boys, and we also get the opportunity to give each team their own special drumming fanfare – and see which teams respond.

I reckon pretty much all of them had a bit of a wiggle to our music as they passed by – but some teams definitely grooved more than others…

Top prize for dancing to our beat goes to Kenya, who can be absolutely relied upon to dance their way enthusiastically through the samba line. We love Kenya.

This year Samoa and Tonga came joint second, when a number of their players (and coaches) decided to get up-close and personal and dance duets with our dancers (who I’m sure didn’t mind at all).

Here’s a wee bit of media coverage:

Sights and sounds of the Sevens parade

Thousands of people have lined the streets of central Wellington for the Sevens Parade of Nations.

Led by the Batucuda drummers, teams are riding on individual floats themed from their home countries and accompanied by cheerleaders.

Stuff, 2 February 2012

The article includes a really rather awesome video with tons of Batucada all the way through it. Yay! Thanks, Stuff! Check out the video.

Screenshots from the Sevens Parade video
by Hamish Coleman-Ross (Stuff)

Wellington Sevens Parade by evokenz

Quite a bit of Batucada in this one as well – Sevens parade occupies Civic Square by ONE News:

Wellington Batucada - ONE News video coverage screenshot

Samba reggae at the start of the parade – video by orbzuc