Today in New Zealand International Arts Festival history: Festival Picnic (2004) & Nouvelle Vague (2008)
A quick couple of events today - one of our outdoor regional events in 2004, part of a series of Festival Picnics we did in Upper Hutt, Porirua and at Frank Kitts Park in town. (There may have been more I'm not remembering, too!) This one had a series of performances over a few stages, including Pacific drummers, bands, a British comedian, and - as you can see - Korean tightrope walkers & drummers! Nice to see some of the staff from that era out enjoying the sunshine, too - we all spend too much time in dark venues!
Second is the Nouvelle Vague concert at the Festival Club in 2008, which I think is one of those shows everyone remembers being at (even if they weren't - though in fairness, they did do four nights). A French band who do Bossa Nova covers of Eighties New Wave songs, they had the crowd dancing from about the first song - chairs were thrown aside pretty quickly, as I recall. (And I WAS there, obviously, because I took photos!)
Still some of my favourite albums I picked up after a Festival show, and I saw them again in Sydney a couple of years ago now - in a MUCH bigger venue, though. Hard to beat the intimate setting of the Festival Club!