Gaze into this crystal ball Australia, because this could be what our future holds, provided nothing goes too pear-shaped.
A New Zealand festival has just become the biggest outdoor live music event to take place since the pandemic reared its ugly head, with a casual 120,000 punters flocking to CubaDupa in Wellington on Saturday to feast their eyes and ears on the creative street festival’s many musical wonders.
It comes after the city lifted all remaining COVID restrictions earlier this month, returning to a level of normality sufficient enough to drive us bonkers with FOMO.
The free festie lined up 19 hours of curated entertainment across its 50 stages, with punters spoilt rotten with more than 500 performances and 20 (count ’em, 20!) parades, involving around 1,750 artists “from orchestral to Māori dub grooves, second-line brass to breakbeat, and indie rock to post-punk”.
Festival boss Gerry Paul told Scoop Culture: “The team and I are just buzzing! We just feel so lucky to be able to host the most diverse and creative festival in New Zealand, and what we know to be the biggest music and arts festival in the world right now”.
Cop a squiz at some footage below, and keep your digits crossed Australia isn’t too far behind.
Where else in the world is something like this happening right now?
Two years in the making, @cubadupa was absolutely fizzing on the first day of the two-day festival.
With the second day in full swing, CubaDupa turns into one giant party with surprises around every corner. pic.twitter.com/ZYYFFrEKeF
— WellingtonNZ (@Wellingtonnz) March 28, 2021
Someone must have captured this much better than I did, but this in Wellington today where 8 music groups along one street played one composition – using headphones to keep in sync. #CubaDupa pic.twitter.com/ey5bxOgFe6
— Jemaine Clement (@AJemaineClement) March 28, 2021
