Wellington Batucada is thrilled to announce that we are the winners of the Arts & Culture category in the 2019 Wellington Community Awards.
Woohoo! Go us!
Continue reading
Lucy (former Batucada tamborim player) owns El Barrio Latino Bar and was keen for us to do a small gig in June to celebrate the Brazilian festival Festas Juninas – also known as Festas de São João.
Keeping the volume down is a challenge in a small space, so we decided a mini-gig would work best, with 10-12 drummers instead of our usual 20-30. Our dancers came along and danced with the crowd, as there wasn’t space to do a dance performance. So – a bit of an experiment all round.
Continue reading
Pride is such a wonderful gig to be a part of. We’ve watched this fantastically inclusive event grow over the years to become quite epic, and it’s one of the band’s favourite parades – probably the craziest parade we do. The crowd and all our fellow paraders are so much fun.
Due to the recent tragic events in Christchurch, CubaDupa was moved offstreet this year.
Our Sunday Swan Stage show went ahead as planned – but on-stage at the Opera House (ooohhh!!).
Wellington Batucada drummers and dancers perform live at the Opera House, Wellington, New Zealand – as part of CubaDupa 2019. This year we celebrated the life and music of Mestre Moa do Katande, who was an inspiration to us all.
Due to the recent tragic events in Christchurch, CubaDupa was moved offstreet this year.
This meant, sadly, that all of the street performances planned by Wellington Batucada and our samba whanau from around the country could not go ahead. So instead, we decided to host a massive Samba Jam on the Saturday at our rehearsal space – the Cook Island Hall in Newtown.
Wellington Batucada host a samba jam party at the Cook Island Hall for all our samba-loving friends and bands from around the country. Video by Tom S Etuata.
We adore Newtown Fair. And this year, the weather was spectacular. As, of course, were we.
Continue reading
Wellington Batucada drummers and dancers perform in Wellington’s Island Bay Festival Parade. Video by Tom S Etuata.
Thank you from Island Bay Festival:
Hi everyone! Slightly belated, but still heartfelt thank you to you all and your groups for yet another fantastic parade!
Couldn’t do it without you all, and your enthusiastic participation, marching, singing, dancing, trike-riding, acrobat-ing, instrument playing and marshalling really makes it an awesome event. Please pass on my thanks to everyone from your groups who was involved. Til next year… Mel
We love performing at Te Rā o te Raukura Festival. It’s such a brilliant community event, and we really enjoy wandering round all the stalls and checking out the other acts, as well as doing our bit. It’s got such a friendly vibe.
Continue reading
Normally when we are invited to parade on or around the field at a Wellington Phoenix game, they lose. OMG! The curse of the samba drummers!
Continue reading
Wellington Batucada is honoured to have been selected as one of the finalists in this year’s Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards for Wellington City – in the Arts & Culture section.
Our veteran agogo player RJ Henderson put together a compelling application for the Award, and we were absolutely delighted to hear that all his hard work had paid off and that we were one of the finalists.
The awards ceremony on July 27 was attended by RJ and our committee chairperson Lise Hutcheon.
The Winner in the Arts & Culture category was The Performance Arcade, and the Runner Up was Out Wellington Incorporated (Wellington Pride Festival I Tū whakahīhī e Te Whanganui-ā-Tara).
Compassion Soup Kitchen Wellington were honoured as Supreme Winner for their commitment to helping vulnerable people.
Congratulations to all the nominees and winners. We love Wellington!