Cuba Street Carnival

The Cuba Street Carnival is a defunct street parade and creative celebration in Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand. It has not been held since 2009 due to a lack of funding.[1] The festival will be held again in 2015 under a different name.

History

Founded by Chris Morley-Hall in 1998, the festival involves hundreds of artists, performers, street buskers, a night street parade, and a street market. The Carnival was inspired by the Notting Hill Carnival and other raucous street parades and fairs. While it ran, it attracted crows of approximately 10,000 to 20,000 people.[1]

The event became biennial in 2009, in order to avoid clashing with the New Zealand International Arts Festival.[1]

Among the acts to have played at the festival are Fat Freddy's Drop, Trinity Roots, and The Black Seeds.[1] Notable parade performers have included samba bands Wellington Batucada and AKSamba.

Revival

In 2011, the Creative Capital Arts Trust was established to run both Wellington's Fringe Festival and the Cuba Street Carnival. However, a date for the Cuba Street Carnival was not set. In 2012, the trust was approached by the Wellington City Council to formulate an event development plan to run the festival again.[1]

In 2014, the Wellington City Council set aside $250,000 towards a new Cuba St festival in late March or early April 2015, which would cost about $500,000 in total.[2][3]

The revival is called CubaDupa

References
  1. Thyne, Natasha (2 October 2012). "Cuba Street Carnival may stage a comeback". The Wellingtonian. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  2. Chapman, Katie (25 February 2014). "Council digs deep to restore carnival". The Dominion Post. Fairfax. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  3. Wellington City Council (25 February 2014). "Cuba Street Carnival returning next year, with $250,000 from the council". Scoop.co.nz. Retrieved 12 June 2014.


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