CultureFest 2007
Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:54 pm

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The Ultra Friendly Organisation announces its star studded line up for the first annual CULTUREFEST. Auckland’s newest and ONLY zero waste, corporate free, multi day festival. To be held on Waiheke Island this Anniversary weekend: 27, 28 JAN 2007.

Notorious late starters and finishers we have been holding back a little to allow the air to clear after the New Year mayhem. Having experienced the best and biggest shows over the New Years break we have pirated the treasure chests of Parihaka et al to bring you one hell of a show. We have mashed the rough with the smooth and the fastest with the deepest and left the rest for next year.

Expect a smooth running, multi layered feast of festival excitement including: Multiple stages with a Sculptural main stage, Delicious junk free organic foods and beverages, huge multi screen AV shows and tricks, workshops, stalls, kids zone, so many performers we’re having trouble counting them all!, Speakers corner, Global Market, Eco Living, Bars (ALL local products!!!), Theme Camps, Cabaret Stage, Wood Henge, Cinema, Pillow Fight Club, Buskers Stage, Art Trail, Carving Symposium, Moroccan Tents, Domes & Tepees, Camping, Bio Fuelled Generators and much much more, all without corporate hijacking! This is a long term project built to profit your souls and YOUR community, not our wallets (or some Australian promoters for that matter!). Join us and help build something unique and truly special, something you can call your own. Know how can do, the time for change is NOW!

Musically our aim is to seek out the true believers of the New Zealand music scene and highlight the best NEW acts on the circuit. We offer a broad cross section of new talent and dig up the original old school stuff to remind us all from whence we came.

Opening the event with a booming Tai ko drum set, the power of sublime Japanese martial art drummers from Hamiltron should get the blood pumping in time for the Mamaku Projects jazzy fusion of Tui inspired vocals, keys and horns over worldly tribal grooves.

Headlining Saturday night will be Nathan Haines, fresh off the boat from his musical base camp in London, he is keen to impress fans with some new material and that Squire for Hire charisma and stage presence we all know and love. A real treat will be hearing who he has included in the all star band: ex Trinity Roots drumming legend Cooch, Vanessa Freeman and Mike Patto who have been part of Nathan’s UK band for several years, New York based singer/songwriter Tama Waipara, Puerto Rican born Miguel Fuentes and Mickey Ututaonga. “I only get one chance a year to put together a band like this in New Zealand, and it’s amazing to feel part of all that energy in one place at one time” says Nathan. “Together we do things which we could never achieve alone, and having Mike and Vanessa here from London is very special for me. We have performed in many wonderful places together since 2000, but New Zealand for us is the most special”.

Also confirmed are Spektrum, the kiwi infused four piece with lady Lola’s incredible and rather risqué approach to live performance (Rhythm and Vines party goers were astounded and amazed by her on stage antics). Billed as the new sound of London, they are hailed by UK music media as the freshest and most daring onstage act in London this year. Their new album Fun at the Gymkana Club heralds a monumental shift in pop music. Combining Grace Jones style funk and sass with Isaac Tuckers dancy breakbeats and Teias punky bass sound reminiscent of New Order and Souixsie. The x factor lies in the eclectic electronic artistry that weaves the whole band together. A huge hit at Rhythm and Vines the band returns for one gig only at Culturefest.

Main stage winds down around 3.00am but will wind up again around 10 .00am with Jimmy Dales Afrorobics, a new angle on his legendary one man crusade to bring a taste of African spirit to our little island. Supported by a massive ensemble of drum nuts there will be few left sleeping after a bazillion watts of this! The day will unfold with classic kiwi soloists Karen Hunter, Luke Hurley and Aaron Carpenter leading an acoustic and socio-politically aware journey. Several keynote speakers will inform us all of our democratic right to not sleepwalk through history as our precious freedom is eroded away by paranoid bureaucrats and soothe sayers. Apathy will not be welcome at this event

There is a lot to fit in to 36 hours and we are going to be tighter than a fish’s proverbial back stage! So as the heat builds we will employ the cooling effect of our Moroccan tents, cold organic beer and wine to loosen the elastic while the longest dreads you ever seen swing from Nafatalia Rasta’s lead singer! The skank in the bank is to prepare the stage for the masters (mistresses) of Raglans Sound Splash and wash away those back to work Auckland city blues as Cornerstone Roots grace us with more dreaded locks and insightful reggae riffs.

As the sun set colours our valley its time for the Hot Grits to let their deep, funky grooves echo around the hills, bringing on the night and Wellingtons Black Seeds off shoot Phoenix Foundation fire up to stomp on Sunday night, bringing that Skanking Welly sound to the jewel of the Hauraki gulf.

In the stable of electronic freaks and tweekers, the North Shore Pony Club will headline in the dance dome, creating mass hysteria and frenetic drum and bass vibes, emulating the likes of Concord Dawn with a new take on massive noise and very dirty grooves, Bobby Brazooka will weigh in with his characteristic Brazilian boom box set and the Sandy Bay Social Club are out to impress with the South American dance machine.
For the true test of DJ skill and showmanship Dexterity will put on a 4 deck special set to rock the doubters while DJ AUDit will blast in the latest West Coast vibes fresh from his 4 week tour of all things Californian. Also delighting will be one of NZ’s finest house spinners Philippa along with a practical galaxy of local DJ talent pumping phatness for the entire duration of the festival.

In the Cabaret zone we will deliver a plethora of mad yet talented individuals like Pauly Paul and the Circus Smirkus crew, UFONIX a new, experimental electro baroque ensemble, including the sonic master Joe Goubay, didge daz, djembe Satique Sidibe and kit Dorian Brown. The kids will be happy to hear Tania Batt reciting the tales of olde and new, the Pillow fight Club antics and Cirque de Silly keeping it real back and front stage.

It is a strange phenomenon that the people who keep the show rolling hour after hour are either not mentioned, or prefer to be anonymous, but the Culturefest organisers are very proud of the fact that we will have the best damn production crew ever. The hundreds of hours of prep and toil of pack down will not pass without mention this time as we employ their services to ensure everything that can go wrong doesn’t! (But may look like it is as we deliberately demonstrate the fine art of festival Faux!)

Do we need to mention more, this is 2007’s fattest line up and there is more, much more, visit the web site www.culturefest.org.nz and discover the full picture. Waiheke will be the only place to be on Anniversary weekend. If it’s your first time don’t let it be your last, paradise is on your backdoor.

http://www.culturefest.org.nz/

RE: CultureFest 2007
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:26 pm

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