You know how sometimes you get those lovely performances where everything just feels right – and you don’t know how or why, but it’s a great experience when it happens?
This was one of those nights.
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Wellington Batucada drummers and dancers were invited this year, for the first time, to perform at the Upper Hutt City of Song Festival.
What a beautiful day – and what a lovely venue, with the large stage in amongst the dappled shade of the trees at Harcourt Park.
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What a lovely day, and what a lovely gig.
My goodness. What a stonkingly hot day that was – you can’t beat Welly etc etc.
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Wellington Batucada is absolutely thrilled to have been invited by Wellington composer John Psathas to take part in Cubasonic – his original score for over 500 musicians written especially for this year’s CubaDupa.
We’ve been learning and rehearsing our part in this epic piece since November and we’re really excited to be involved. The score is nothing like anything we’ve ever played before, which makes it fascinating and an excellent challenge to get our heads around.
John Psathas and CubaDupa director Gerry Paul were interviewed on Radio New Zealand this week. Have a listen and get excited about what’s to come – it’s gonna be huge!
A mass musical disruption is coming to the Capital as part of the CubaDupa festival next month.
500 muscians will line Cuba Street from one end to the other and perform an original score by Wellington composer John Psathas.
Add in a sound system across multiple city blocks and a locally-invented Tesla coil that can be played like a keyboard and shoots lightning into its surrounding and you’ve got Cubasonic.
Lynn’s guests are John Psathas and CubaDupa director Gerry Paul. CubaDupa is on March 28 and 29 in Wellington.
RNZ, Nine To Noon, 7 February 2020
At a remote venue on the windswept hills above Ohariu Valley we were the surprise entertainment as we drummed and danced at the wedding of Marina and Andrew – a lovely Brazilian/Kiwi couple.
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Wellington Batucada drummers entertain the sponsored walkers at Walking Stars Wellington. Video by Tom S Etuata.
This was a fun gig that got a lot of people moving. The organizers have given us great feedback and apparently the crowd was good over the whole event.
Here is a thank you from Jenny who was the main organiser (and a fellow sambista herself from Samba Ao Vento in Palmy):
Dressed in whatever we felt like wearing (quite strange to be out of any sort of Batucada uniform!) we had a most excellent afternoon doing an informal ninja gig in our old stomping ground of Cuba Street. We were helping celebrate the opening of the new Taco Addicts food caravan, owned by our lovely dancer Amber.
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A great gig for the crew at the Ode to the Moon Multicultural show at Lower Hutt Town Hall. A fun and vibrant night was had by all.
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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.
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