Author Archives: AliG

We’re performing at WOMAD next year!

1

Wellington Batucada wins the 2015 WOMAD Performer Competition

Busking for WOMAD votes on Courtenay Place

Busking for WOMAD votes on Courtenay Place
Photo by Alan Shuker

Check out the WOMAD website!!!

Dear Batucada friends and family, Bat-members past, present, and future…

It’s been one heck of a ride.

Over the past 8 weeks we have worked together on an awesome common goal – to win the opportunity to perform at WOMAD next year – a festival that we love and admire.

We’ve asked pretty much everyone we know to vote for us, and then we’ve asked a whole bunch of people we don’t know to vote for us too – through our regular gigs and special vote-collecting busking sessions all over Wellington and beyond.

It’s been a heck of a busy and full-on 2 months for all of us, and I think what has impressed me the most is the huge amount of original effort, creativity and sheer guts and determination that so many people have shown. Continue reading

WOMAD busking gig, Wellington Night Market

comment

Vote for us – you know you want to…

Another day, another vote-gathering busking session in our quest to win the People’s Choice competition and play at WOMAD next year. Woop! Woop!

This time we entertained the lovely folks at the Wellington Night Market on a Friday evening, the front row wearing the W-O-M-A-D headpieces that Carin made (she’s so creative!).

Instead of playing I went around the audience with my clipboard, explaining why we were playing and what it was for, and gathering votes. I filled two or three pages with names and email addresses, all of which were duly entered onto the WOMAD website with confirmation emails sent to the voters themselves. The system is working! We’re doing well!

Full rendition of Ijexá – video by Phuong Nguyen

Wellington Batucada & the Museum Art Hotel – CubaDupa partners!

comment

We <3 the Wellington Museum Art Hotel - our new CubaDupa match partners

Museum Art Hotel WellingtonWellington Batucada is delighted to announce that we have found a match donor for the CubaDupa Carnival Zone. We met Chris Parkin of the Museum Art Hotel at the CubaDupa launch event on Monday, got chatting, and he has agreed to become our partner! How fabulous.

The Museum Art Hotel will match all donations made to the Carnival Zone Boosted campaign, up to the value of $5,000. Thanks a million Chris! You are wonderful. Now all we have to do is help Chris decide what instrument he wants to play in the band.

Find out more about the Carnival Zone and make a donation to our Boosted campaign. You know you want to! Your donation will enable us to create a themed zone with music, dance and carnival arts in Upper Cuba Street. Costumes, street dressings, puppets and a stage set will bring Cuba Street alive with colour celebrating the street and the people who make up the creative pulse of our capital.

Donate to the CubaDupa Boosted campaign!

comment

Get involved as Wellington Batucada becomes part of Carnival at the top of Cuba Street

2009 Cuba Street Carnival

Creating a spectacle at the 2009 Cuba Street Carnival

MAKE A DONATION RIGHT NOW!!!

We are honoured to have been chosen as one of seven groups to spearhead the Wellington CubaDupa Boosted campaign. Each group will be featured as part of next year’s inaugural CubaDupa festival, being held in and around Cuba Street, 28th & 29th March 2015. The Boosted campaign aims to raise an additional $250,000 to match the Wellington City Council’s generous $250,000 funding, which will make CubaDupa the awesome event that we know it can be.

The Carnival Zone target on Boosted is to raise $10,000, which we hope will be equalled by a generous match donor. Wellington Batucada will also be putting in $10,000 of our own money.

Featuring Wellington Batucada and samba groups from across New Zealand; the Carnival Zone will fill the streets with music, dance and festivity throughout the weekend. Continue reading

Please vote for Wellington Batucada to perform at WOMAD 2015!

1

We want to play at WOMAD!

Wellington Batucada has entered the competition to perform as a roving band at WOMAD 2015. The band that gets the most votes, wins.

Check out our video:

If you think we would be good at WOMAD, how about giving us your vote?

To vote, click on the Batucada entry page on the WOMAD website and cast your vote. You’ll get an email asking you to confirm your vote (check your junk mail folder if you don’t).

Thanks so much! Every vote counts, because you can only vote once from any given email address.

If you have friends who might also consider supporting us, please pass this info on to them.

Beginners’ drum workshops start Sunday 12 October 2014

comment

Learn samba drumming with Wellington Batucada!

Wellington Batucada in the RWC 2011 All Blacks victory parade

Wellington Batucada in the RWC 2011 All Blacks victory parade
Photo by NZ Sevens (click to enlarge)

We are pleased to announce that the new series of beginners’ drumming workshops will start at 12.45pm on Sunday 12 October 2014, and will run till 3pm. There will be 6 workshops in total, and costs are $60 for the series if paid in full, or $12.50 per workshop. Continue reading

Wellington Batucada – we’d love to play for you (retrospective video)

comment

Check out our new video

I thought it might be a good idea for us to have a showreel for the band – so I made a video…. hope you like it!

I’ve used all kinds of Batucada footage, old and new – and selected some of our best photos as well. My aim was to put together a good representation of who we are, what we do – and how much fun it is to be a member of Wellington Batucada – using the random collection of video, audio and photographs currently in our archives. It’s been a fun project!

Wellington Batucada retrospective video – We’d love to play for you
Compiled and edited by Alison Green

Hastings Blossom Festival 2014

comment

Fabulous 1950s costumes in the rain

For the first time this year we decide to dress up in costume for Hastings, instead of wearing our normal Batucada uniform. The theme was Spring: Back to the Future – referring back to the heyday of the Hastings Blossom Festival in the 1950s when thousands of people would descend on the town for the annual festival.

It was a perfect opportunity for us to delve into the dress-up box and pull out our favourite floral swing dress, petticoats and cardis; or rock it out with a variation on 1950s James Dean T-shirt and jeans attire. We looked awesome, if we do say so ourselves.

The band in costume at the Hastings Blossom Festival - photo by Simon Shuker Continue reading