Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) festivities unfold over the first two days of November in an explosion of color and life-affirming joy. The theme is death, but the point is to demonstrate love and respect for deceased family members. In towns and cities throughout Mexico, revelers don funky makeup and costumes, hold parades and parties, sing and dance, and make offerings to lost loved ones.
It’s the middle of winter. It’s very cold. We’re playing at night. I’m wearing two vests, two t-shirts, two pairs of leggings and a long skirt underneath my summer Batucada uniform.
But what total fun! A brilliant experience, and well worth braving the cold for (and we were super-hot!).
We were thrilled to be invited to take part in the celebrations for the re-opening of the St James Theatre in the centre of Wellington. It’s been closed for three years getting earthquake strengthened, so it was brilliant to be included in the wide range of performance groups taking part.
We began with a small group of drummers and dancers parading through town towards the St James, meeting up with parades of other performance groups approaching from all directions to kick off the celebrations.
Throughout the evening, many of Wellington’s rich and varied treasure trove of singers, dancers and performance groups of all kinds entertained the crowds outside the theatre. Wellington Batucada was honoured to be chosen to provide the final show of the evening.
Come and learn to drum and dance alongside members of Wellington Batucada. Sign up for the 2022 Beginners classes now!
The Sunday afternoon classes will run for 6 weeks, from 24 July to 28 August 2022, 1pm – 3pm.
The cost is $120 for the course. There’s also a special price of $60 for Batucada members who are keen to learn a new instrument or refresh your skills.
Drumming classes will take place at the Cook Islands Society Hall, 220 Hanson St, Newtown.
Dance classes will take place at Te Whaea National Dance & Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Road, Newtown (note new venue to accommodate more dancers).
UPDATE 06/07/22: The 2022 drumming beginners’ course is now FULLY SUBSCRIBED
However, as not everyone who registered has paid yet, there may be a small number of places that become available in the next couple of weeks. Please contact us at wellingtonbatucada@gmail.com if you would like to be added to the waiting list for places on the drumming beginners’ course.
There are a few places still available on the dance course
Dancers please fill in the Beginners’ Dance registration form to register.
Once you’ve completed the form, please pay $120 via internet banking to:
Wellington Batucada
38-9012-0348830-00
Reference “Your Name” and “Beginners”
If you have already registered but not yet paid, please make your payment as soon as possible, as we will be releasing any unpaid-for places on the course to people on our waiting list.
Saturday night, 21 August 2021
Wellington Batucada is commemorating 20 wonderful years this year – we’d love for you to come and celebrate with us!
Fill out the rego form using the link below – we’ll keep you updated with details and then formally invite you to RSVP. (We’ll be sending invites to the registered list only).
Instead of getting together and playing drums, we’re planning an event that focuses on catching up with friends old and new.
There’ll be live entertainment, a cash bar and some kai. We can’t wait to get together again!
Venue: Toitū Pōneke aka The Hub on Kilbirnie Park (that’s next to the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre)
Date: Saturday 21 August 2021, 6:00pm-2:00am
Entry: Free
Hope to see you in August!
Ngā mihi
Directors and Committee
Wellington Batucada
New Zealand
After an early, rainy start and some adventures negotiating traffic and on-site construction works the crew all assembled on-time and without losing anyone. Phew!
After a try-out for stage positions we waited in the green room and then started the show with a short, noisy, surprise parade into Shed 6 to round everyone up from the breakfast reception and then led them pied piper style across into the main TSB Arena stadium.
Once in there we paraded through the stadium seating and got onto the big stage (with a MASSIVE video screen behind us). Then we gave the crowd a blast of Samba Reggae and Merengue.
What a beautiful day to celebrate International Dance Day.
Te Papa positively sparkled on the sunny waterfront, the audience was huge, filling the space at Te Marae completely, and we had a wonderful time showcasing the dances of samba.
It’s always the same when you do any sort of filming – it always starts later than planned, and there’s always heaps of waiting around. Fortunately for us, our good friends at El Barrio had provided part of their bar as our official Green Room, which meant that we had somewhere to store our stuff, get ready, hang out, socialise, and maybe even have a beer or two. What could be better?
Oh how we love Newtown Fair.
You get there super-early (wearing your band uniform, most likely), spend an hour or a few meandering through the streets looking at all the stalls and buying stuff, eating yummy food from everywhere in the world, and answering many questions from people about when the band will be playing. Everyone looks forward to the Batucada parade, it seems.
Relay for Life is such a great event. We are always honoured to be invited to take part, and this year was no exception.