Carnival

If you happen to be in the Wellington region in February 2011, don't the miss the city's biggest outdoor party, the Cuba Street Carnival. It used to be a pretty casual affair on Cuba Street but has expanded so much in the last decade that it's now city-wide and the organisers only manage to put it on every two years! The last edition Vaughan & I went to was in 2003 so I couldn't wait to go check it out last Saturday. 'Carnival' in New Zealand isn't quite the same as back home though: in Belgium the carnival tradition is a remnant of the old winter masquerades when people paraded through the streets wearing masks and indulging in decadent eating & drinking before Lent kicked in. My hometown Poperinge is actually quite renowned for its carnival festivities - we even elect a 'Prince Carnival' each year who is in charge of the city for the next 3 days! My father was Vice-President of the Carnival Committee for a while so we grew up finding this the most normal thing in the world :-).

The Cuba Street Carnival is a bit more like the Gentse Feesten, but with a global twist. It's like an explosion of music, dance, street performers, art installations, kids’ entertainment, food stalls and artisan markets. The highlight is considered to be the Illuminated Night Parade, featuring dozens of floats, dancers, performers, sparkles, bizarre sights and later on a massive batucada drum-off in the streets. We started our day early and by 1pm I was already engrossed by the gentle tunes of Cuban folk music. An hour later the band of the wife of one of my Brazilian students came on and things started heating up! My friend Alison (see photo) and I ran into heaps of my NZAID students and they were all very keen to shoot pictures. Quite handy guys, thanks!