We were rather pleased to have been invited to take part in the Island Bay Playcentre Fundraising Gala this year – our smallest ever audience (haha!).
A very small and select group of Batucadans (is that a word? It is now…) was chosen to play this gig – I think the organisers were a bit worried that we might be too loud for the little ones if there were too many of us… and a lovely time was had by all. Here’s a video and some pics: Continue reading
Wellington Batucada has a bunch of different uniforms for different occasions – there’s the official black uniform (recently updated to cotton rather than synthetic – bliss!), the old official white uniform which I think has been retired (it really wasn’t very flattering, to be honest), and various T-shirts and hoodies – I especially like our dark blue teeny tiny T-shirts we wore for the Cuba Street Carnival.
All of these uniforms are available to Batucada members once they get signed-off to perform – in fact earning your uniform is an important part of the process. But we haven’t had any items of official Batucada clothing that you can buy before you get signed-off – or to wear if you’re a fan, rather than a Batucada member.
Until now!
So – without further ado we present the Official Wellington Batucada Hoodie and Vest Collection – otherwise known as “We love the band, but we’re not quite in the band (yet) – if you see what I mean…”
From L to R: hoodie (front), hoodie (back), hooded vest (front), hooded vest (back)
Both the hoodies and vests are a generous shade of red(ish), and have the Batucada shield logo on the front and our big Batucada star logo across the back. They’re lovely and warm and snuggly. The hoodies have sleeves that are slightly shorter than normal, so if you’ve got long arms you’ll probably prefer the vests!
Cost: $30 each
Styles: Red hoodies and red hooded vests
Sizes available: Men’s S, M, L, XL and Women’s 10, 12, 14, 16
Contact: our fashionista Phillip Rendle at rendlep@gmail.com if you’d like to buy one.
Wellington Batucada was asked to play at this year’s annual World Fair Trade Day, when the World Fair Trade Organisation and its members promote global awareness of fair trade. It’s a great cause, and we were happy to play our part.
In Wellington the event is part of Fair Trade Fortnight – an opportunity to celebrate Wellington’s Fair Trade City status, and show the huge support of Wellington businesses for Fairtrade. Continue reading
Newtown Fair’s an old favourite for Wellington Batucada – such a great atmosphere, and the crowd always likes to get involved and join in with the dancing, as you can see… Continue reading
I thought there was an unwritten law that the weather is always insanely good throughout the Wellington Sevens weekend, with nary a drop of rain to be seen. Seems the Weather Gods mislaid the memo this year, because Saturday was wetwetwet.
At noon we did a short performance outside the stadium gates to a small and slightly damp crowd – check out the impressive fluoro-clad recording equipment!
Video by AtThe7s
Once we’d finished we were bussed back to the start of the waterfront parade route, and decided (seeing as the weather was so crappy) to do a bit of an impromptu gig under the arches next to Mac’s Brewbar.
Continue reading
After the success of our “Pied Piper” parades along the waterfront during the Rugby World Cup, the City Council decided to see if it would also work for the Sevens. They called it the “walking bus” in their publicity, and hoped we would get a massive crowd to follow us from the Fanzone to the stadium, in the same way that they did during the World Cup.
The big difference between a World Cup rugby game and the Sevens is that the rugby game has a specified kick-off time and if you’re late, you’ll miss it. So there’s clearly going to be a large number of people all heading to the stadium at around the same time.
Sevens weekend is different. Costumed ticket-holders gather in huge numbers in the bars and restaurants that line the waterfront, but they all make their way to the stadium at different times – they drift along whenever they feel like it and they aren’t constrained by a single magic kick-off moment. Continue reading
…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
I swear, the Wellington Santa Parade gets earlier every year! This year we weren’t even halfway through November before it was time to don the pohutukawa headgear and get out on the streets in support of the bearded guy in red.
Only a couple of weeks before, we’d been marching through Wellington as part of the All Blacks World Cup victory celebrations, and here we were again – a similar route but in the opposite direction. It was a lovely sunny day and everyone seemed to having a pretty good time, although it was definitely a bit quieter than the total mayhem we’d experienced a couple of weeks earlier.
I think the trickiest thing about parades is timing. Not timing as in keeping in time with each other (although that’s always fun when you’re concentrating on moving forward in a choreographed fashion as well as playing) – I mean keeping in time with the other floats and performers in the parade.
Let me explain. Continue reading
There’s a superstition amongst the Wellington Phoenix Yellow Fever that when Batucada performs at a game, the team loses. Oh dear. I believe there’s even a chant, which is probably not repeatable in a family-friendly environment…
We haven’t played at a Phoenix game for ages, but out of the blue we got a call, asking us to play. Superstition notwithstanding, we were more than happy to answer the call. Continue reading
Monday – Auckland, Tuesday – Christchurch, Wednesday – Wellington.
On Tuesday morning I was vaguely wondering where I should stand to watch the All Blacks victory parade in Wellington the following day, when an unexpected BatMail from Caroline arrived in my inbox.
Subject: URGENT RESPONSE REQUIRED!!! BATUCADA IN THE TICKERTAPE PARADE TOMORROW!!!
Importance: High
The email began with “Good morning everyone and whoopdeedooo!!!” and closed with “DRUMMERS ONLY if you are keen and available for this please email pronto as please with YES YES YES TO THE ABS PARADE in the subject line.”
Yup – Wellington Batucada had been invited to perform in the All Blacks Rugby World Cup 2011 victory parade. We’d be playing in what would turn out to be Wellington’s biggest ever event of its kind, and I went a little weak at the knees at the prospect. Whoopdeedooo all right! Continue reading