CubaDupa OFFSTREET brings out resilient Wellingtonians

Media Release

31 March 2019

CubaDupa OFFSTREET festival is in its final day and the Wellington weather has turned it on and crowds are once again filling the streets of the Cuba St precinct. The streets are full of colour, music, dance and delicious food.

The reconfigured festival to OFFSTREET is due to the country still be under a heightened terror threat.

The CubaDupa team were able to re-programme 90% of the entertainment into 15 locations, a mixture of indoor venues and secure outdoor locations.

The crowds were well behaved, clearly enjoying the event.

Drew James, CupaDupa’s Artistic Director says. "It’s been great that Wellington came out to be a part of the CubaDupa vibe. The OFFSTREET programme was a wonderful success with venue packed and good humoured queues, and we found space for all of the performances from bands to dance and opera performances. This has been a huge team and community effort, and we are thrilled with the result. I feel so proud to be a Wellingtonian!"

A participant in the festival, Mathew Hutchinson from Mt Cook said he and his friends had a great time “We have been up and down Cuba St a couple of times, eaten lots of great food - we’ve just seen Maori Sidesteps who were fantastic and now we’re going on another wander. It has been really great fun”.

Justin Lester, Mayor of Wellington said “There were so many fantastic performing arts and music acts to see and the brilliant turnout is a testament to Wellington’s resilience and why we are known as the Culture Capital”.

CubaDupa will return as a street festival in 2020.

-ENDS-

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