Review: Music, CubaDupa 2021
Oli Cheyne (he/him)
If you walked into town on the weekend of March 27-28 of, you might have had a difficult time getting from one end of Cuba Street to the other. But with everything that was going on at CubaDupa, why wouldn’t you have wanted to take your time and soak in the atmosphere, the people, the food, the culture—oh so much culture.
Aotearoa’s largest outdoor music and arts festival made an emphatic return on the last weekend of March, celebrating the very best of local and global artists and performers. Diversity was certainly not lacking, with over 500 performances over the Saturday and Sunday, and over 1700 artists taking to the fifty stages that were spread out across Cuba Street and the heart of Te Aro. After not taking place last year, and the 2019 festival being moved off the street to indoor venues, the “beautiful disruption” assumed its place as a flagbearer for Wellington and Aotearoa’s arts community this year. It attracted over 120,000 people to Cuba St on the Saturday alone.
Adorned by taniwha of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Ngake and Whātaitai, which was painted by Miriama Grace-Smith, Xoe Hall, and Gina Kiel—aka The Dream Girls Collective—the Wellington Airport Ngā Taniwha stage presented an amazingly rich range of performances from local groovers; Richter City Rebels, Hans Pucket, and Odessa, among countless others. The big names on the stage, Troy Kingi and JessB, lit up the night and carved permanent smiles on everyone by the stage. Even soul and RnB enthusiast Dr Ashley Bloomfield was seen skanking at Troy Kingi, and ensuring that everyone was sanitising and using the COVID Tracer app diligently.
With stages spread right across the Cuba precinct, it was at times a bit overwhelming deciding where to go and who to see, but of all problems to have, that is definitely a good one. The Massey Creative Distraction Stage, nestled into Glover Park outside Rogue and Vagabond, provided a nice grassy area to have a wee lie down and listen to an array of sounds during the day and right through the evening. Christchurch band There’s A Tuesday and Dunedin’s Ha the Unclear rolled in through the evening and set up a cracking night with H4LF CĀST, sending everyone home with a belly full of soul. If you were brave enough to face the hair of the dog and get back out on Sunday, you would’ve been lucky enough to see the groovy family band Revulva sending it in the early arvo and curing any semblance of a hangover that still lingered.
A highlight of the festival was the Garage Project Wild Workshop stage tucked away on Marion Street. Curated by Mermaidens and Earth Tongue’s Gussie Larkin, the stage comprised entirely women/non-binary led performances, featuring faves Wiri Donna, Linen, and Auckland’s Dick Move. Ludus had everyone bopping and keeping the energy going between bands in the evening, and Kedu Carlö closed out with their trademark tribal house and techno late into the night.
It’s at festivals like CubaDupa where I wish that I could adopt some skills of an omnipresent deity and be able to experience all of the amazing artists that were on show, instead of running between stages like some fucking madman because I’m incredibly indecisive and can’t make up my mind on who I want to see. After the past couple of years not quite working out, it’s a testament to the organisers and workers of CubaDupa to come back with what turned into the largest safely run festival in the world since the pandemic began, and we can only wait in anticipation for next year.