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.
“In 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 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.
