CubaDupa Announces Festival Accessibility Initiatives

CubaDupa is leading the way in making the street festival welcoming to all audiences with its 2020 accessibility initiatives. The capital’s most diverse free muti-arts festival has worked closely with Arts Access Aotearoa and Blind Low Vision NZ, as well as art access advocates Judith Jones and Hayley Jeffrey to provide programming and resources for a variety of communities. Through these conversations, CubaDupa have created a range of resources to help festival-goers plan their weekend at CubaDupa and move freely and comfortably through the festival site.

Today CubaDupa have released an audio and video tour of the festival site, catered towards festival-goers who are blind, have low vision or are deaf or hearing impaired. This resource marks a huge achievement for CubaDupa, as it is the first of its kind for a street festival in New Zealand. The virtual tour takes listeners through the extensive festival site by describing the surroundings - from the Abel Smith street dropoff/pickup zone to the Wellington Night Market, which reaches all the way down to Wakefield street. With Cuba street and the surrounding cross streets closed to traffic for the weekend of 28 and 29 March, there will be many changes to traffic routes, footpaths and public spaces. Through this map festival-goers with accessibility requirements can plan their CubaDupa weekend with confidence. The video map is captioned and there is also a transcript available to download from the CubaDupa website. Many thanks go to Radioactive.fm for facilitating the recording of the audio map.

Check it out here - Accessible Tour Video - https://youtu.be/b8fxMdd7ERc

The festival site has introduced two Chill Zones, which will provide a low-sensory setting to relax and recoup. The indoor chill zone is located in Te Auaha, which is located at 65 Dixon Street. This zone will provide maps, programmes, wifi, seating, water, accessible toilets and a place to charge your phone. The second zone will be located at 139 Vivian Street, outside Victoria University Design School. This outdoor space will have shaded areas, water, maps and people to help you if you need assistance. Another new site initiative is two dedicated drop-off and pick up zones for vehicles and taxis. There is one at 73 Abel Smith Street, just before Toi Poneke and one at 139 Victoria Street, between McDonalds and the bus stop. As always CubaDupa provides accessible toilets across the whole site and details of these can be found on the website.

The upcoming festival will fill the heart of Wellington with wild creativity and a diverse mix of music, visual arts and dance, with over 1500 artists performing to an audience totalling up to 100,000 people over the weekend. One of those performers is renowned dancer Lusi Faiva, who will perform ‘Taopou’, a new dance piece which was inspired by her experience at CubaDupa 2019. Within Samoan culture, the taupou is the ceremonial hostess who is selected by the village chief. The taupou’s role is to elevate the formal reception of visitors to a village or a place. More than often the taupou is a young woman from the village who is the prettiest and most graceful. Lusi, who uses a wheelchair will be the taupou for CubaDupa 2020 along with her entourage of Samoan performers, supported by the arts organisation Everybody Cool Lives Here. The group wanted to use this opportunity to create a piece that pushes accessibility and visibility not only within the context of Samoan cultural groups but also in terms of how CubaDupa supports people with a difference during the festival.

Prepare to be mesmerized by multi-award-winning performer Rodney Bell and critically acclaimed choreographer Chloe Loftus in their show ‘The Air Between Us’, a mesmerising outdoor aerial dance spectacle that celebrates inclusivity and unity. Suspended above the streets, this aerial harness performance features contemporary and contact dance, as the duo soar above the crowds, inverting and spiralling. Rodney’s wheelchair becomes the set for the action as they climb, tip and spin off-axis. This piece is generously supported by Willis Bond.

Finally, CubaDupa are offering a Touch Tour specifically designed for people with low vision or blindness. This will be a sensory experience that allows participants to touch the costumes, instruments and artworks of some of our fantastic performers and visual artists. The programme will run on Sunday 29th and is free access. To express your interest email

accessibility@cubadupa.co.nz

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