Catacombs Festival Lineup Announced ft. Amp Fiddler, Optimo Espacio, Palms Trax

A two-night festival titled Catacombs has been announced for Central Auckland this March, featuring a club-smoking selection of international and local DJs and performers, including Detroit Funk icon Amp Fiddler, genre-bending UK duo Optimo Espacio, Lobster Theremin trailblazer Palms Trax, DFA-affiliated Saxony-via-Berlin producer Perel and lots more. Organised by local party facilitators Friendly Potential in association with international dance heavyweights Resident Advisor, the impeccably curated lineup will bring the good times to The Civic's beautiful Wintergarden hall. Grip the details here...

Catacombs
Featuring... Amp Fiddler (Live), Borrowed CS, Danny Krivit, Eclair Fifi, Job Jobse, Optimo Espacio, Palms Trax, Perel
Friday 8th March and Saturday 9th March - Wintergarden, The Civic, Auckland

Feel the soulful club vibrations of Amp Fiddler's 'Ridin'...

Check out Palms Trax's sublime single 'Equation'...

Experience Perel's spacey clip for 'Alles'...

Press release:

Friendly Potential in association with Resident Advisor take you on a two-night journey beneath Auckland’s historic Civic, to the incredible Wintergarden hall - into the CATACOMBS.

Over two nights in March, eight groundbreaking acts from around the world will come together at the Wintergarden, an iconic underground 1920s dance-hall that hosts one of the best sounding spaces in the country. Join us as some of the brightest minds in music propel this palatial dreamscape into the future.

The Civic, and the Wintergarden beneath it, is a fever dream. Located in the heart of Auckland, it was opened in 1929 as the city’s premier picture palace. It is the product of a slightly crazed decade speeding toward inevitable collapse - with a fantastical interior featuring illuminated wild animals, exotic figures, and motifs, all held under a twinkling night sky.

But The Civic was not just a cinema. It housed a ballet, an orchestra, and downstairs - the Wintergarden. This dance-hall and restaurant was resplendent - international chefs, a hundred staff, its own house band, and an artistic director fresh from Los Angeles and Sydney. It was ambitious, sensational, and chaotic. And then, ten months later, it was over.

In the early 1940s, The Civic and Wintergarden came alive again. They were a cultural catalyst, as precocious local talent collided with international artistic juggernauts, fuelled by the extravagant spending of American servicemen. There was even a murder scandal. Later, the Rolling Stones played from a golden barge that floated above the Wintergarden. To us, the Wintergarden represents an ambitious and iconoclastic part of humanity and history that excites us so much. We cannot wait to add to its story.