Newtown does it again!
We adore Newtown Fair. And this year, the weather was spectacular. As, of course, were we.
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Newtown Fair 2019
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Category Archives: Photos
Island Bay Festival 2019
Fun in the sun by the sea
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
Te Rā o te Raukura Festival 2019
A beautiful day out in the Valley
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.
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Wellington Phoenix vs Newcastle Jets, October 2018
On the field with the ‘Nix
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!
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The Menagerie Variety Show
Fun and frolics on-stage at the Opera House
Wellington Batucada’s Menagerie performance – the official video. Video by The Menagerie Variety Show 2018.
The last time we were on-stage at the Opera House was for the DANZdance20 gig back in 2013 – so it’s been a while.
25 drummers and 10 dancers from Batucada took to the stage for The Menagerie Variety Show – invited as the “intermission entertainment” – and a brilliant time was had by all.
It was a long day – beginning with a stage walk-through at 3pm. It’s always reassuring to be able to experience the stage and plan how you’re going to get on and off before you do a big gig like this one – and producer extraordinaire Rachel Rouge and her team made sure that every one of the multiple acts in this fabulous Variety Show were able to do just that.
The Opera House is such a beautiful old building – a perfectly grand and decorative old-fashioned theatre – with a veritable rabbit warren of dressing rooms on multiple levels behind the scenes. When you reach the bottom of the many flights of stairs from your dressing room you step through the door from the light-filled stairwell into a dimly-lit and cavernous backstage area. It’s another world.
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Batucada beginners’ drumming course starts 10 June 2018
Learn samba drumming with Wellington Batucada!
Once a year we run an 8-week block of beginners’ drumming classes. These are held on Sundays from 1pm to 3pm, before our regular band practice.
Our next Batucada beginners’ drumming course begins 10 June 2018.
Overview of the course
This is an opportunity learn the basic techniques and patterns on a number of instruments and cover the rhythms of Brazil including samba, samba reggae and merengue. You will be guided by our directors Darryn Sigley and Tim Cooke into the wonderful world of samba, and we aim to have at least one experienced Batucada member supervising each section so that whatever instrument you’re playing, there’s someone there to help you.
CubaDupa 2018 – day 1
Or…how to stop the rain at the perfect moment through sheer force of will
We adore CubaDupa. In the four short years that it’s been running it has become one of the best festivals on Wellington’s annual calendar, and it’s one that we put a huge amount of effort into in terms of costuming and trying out new performance pieces.
Highlights of our main stage performance.
Video footage by John Conly and Michael Sloley, compiled by Michael Sloley.
This year we did two things we’ve never done before. We designed our own patterned fabric especially for CubaDupa and made our own costumes with it; and we introduced two fabulous singers into the mix – Alda Rezende and Nikkie Rich – who sang traditional Brazilian songs while we accompanied them on our drums.
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Newtown Fair 2018
Drumming and dancing in the sun
What a beautiful day for a mad drumming and dancing session through Newtown. A perfect (actually, incredibly hot) day in the middle of The Best Summer Ever – and here we all are at the Newtown Fair, one of our favourite gigs of the year.
We had a ton of first-time performers with us for this gig, as the band is busy preparing for CubaDupa. We’re giving our most recent intake of drummers the opportunity to get a bit of parade practice in before the night parade down Cuba Street in a couple of weekend’s time. Exciting!
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Lions Tour, July 2017 – All Blacks game
Oh the excitement and the heartache
In addition to our gig on Tuesday night for the Hurricanes game, we were also asked to double down for the All Blacks game on Saturday with a total of five gigs, spread throughout the day and into the evening. Of course we said yes.
Wellington Batucada perform for the Lions Tour – playing Samba. Video by John Bosomworth.
Whereas the weather for the ‘Canes game had been really quite friendly for a winter’s evening – cold but not too cold, no wind, no rain (fantastic!) It was an altogether different story on Saturday night. Wellington served up a hefty dose of seriously crappy weather – cold, windy, and rather a lot of rain. Oh joy!
Mary Potter Hospice street appeal 2017
Warming up Cuba Street for a good cause
On a freezing cold day in May, Batucada drummers and dances warmed up Cuba Street with our rhythms and beats. We were taking part in the Mary Potter Hospice street appeal once again, and a great time was had by all.
A week or so later we received this lovely message from the Mary Potter Hospice:
Thank you so very much for volunteering your time for our Mary Potter Hospice Street Collection. … You will be happy to hear we raised $84,762 over the two days of our Street Collection. We really couldn’t do it without this support – so thank you!!