CubaDupa Festival Returning In March 2022

Pōneke's iconic street festival CubaDupa has been confirmed to return in March 2022, taking over the Cuba Street precinct for another mammoth weekend of award-winning musical acts, live theatre, giant puppet dance parties and more. With an approximate audience of 150,000 people heading along to this year's event, CubaDupa was one of largest festivals in the world last summer, and to keep everybody safe and healthy again this time around, attendees must provide their vaccine pass and the organisers are planning a new "theme park style approach" to the site design, all with the goal to best follow the new traffic light system. Working in harmony with these extra safety protocols, the theme for CubaDupa 2022 will be based on Opening, And Entering Portals, meaning there will be creative new ways to experience the weekend. Festival director Gerry Paul explains:

“For 2022, our theme is going to be one of the most creative so far. What happens when you get sucked into the CubaDupa portal? Where will you end up? The portal theme allows us to explore creative ways to provide our audience with access from one place to another dimension.”

Watch this space for CubaDupa news and line-up announcements, due to unravel from late January onward...

CubaDupa
Saturday 26th March and Sunday 27th March 2022 - Cuba Street Precinct, Wellington (free)
Head to www.cubadupa.co.nz for more information

Relive the joy of CubaDupa 2021 in the fast paced festival wrap-up here...

Press release:

After being awarded the Vibrant Gold Award and being hailed as the largest post lockdown festival in the world in the Summer of 2021, Wellington’s Cuba Street precinct is set to come alive again in 2022 as CubaDupa confirms plans to stage the diverse and creative arts festival in Pōneke on the last weekend of summer, March 26 — 27, 2022.

With an estimated audience of 150,00 people across the site in 2021, CubaDupa prepares to be one of the largest accessible outdoor festivals in Aotearoa this Summer following the move to the new Covid Protection Framework (Traffic Light System), with a new theme park style approach to the site design to maximise audience safety and optimise health protocols in 2022.

Staged across a completely pedestrianised Cuba Street Precinct, the festival will involve thousands of artists from award-winning Aotearoa musicians, mass musical projects and pop-up performances, high flying internationally renowned circus acts, giant puppet dance parties and bespoke street performances.

The festival will be following Ministry of Health/Government advice to ensure a safe festival is delivered. Currently outdoor festivals can operate at Level Orange and Green as long as Vaccine Passes can be checked, and all performers, staff and suppliers are fully vaccinated.

Drew James, Chief Executive of the Creative Capital Arts Trust who produces CubaDupa says: “The logistics are a challenge, but we have a plan and are working through the finer details of how we deliver this extraordinary festival within the Covid Protection framework, ensuring that we are able to check Vaccine passes.”

Each year, CubaDupa comes up with new ways of enhancing the audience experience through its theming. For 2022 it is based around Opening, and Entering Portals. “For 2022, our theme is going to be one of the most creative so far. What happens when you get sucked into the CubaDupa portal? Where will you end up? The portal theme allows us to explore creative ways to provide our audience with access from one place to another dimension.” says Gerry Paul, CubaDupa Festival Director.

Prepare yourself to open and eventually enter the CubaDupa portal at www.cubadupa,.co.nz and be first in line to get information about how to gain access to the creative world of CubaDupa 2022. More information on artists, line-up, and the full festival format will be announced in late-January 2022.