CubaDupa

CubaDupa is New Zealand's largest outdoor arts and music festival, celebrating the unique character of Cuba Street, Wellington.

The festival features a dozen music stages, parade groups, street theatre performances, visual art installations, and food and beverage vendors.

CubaDupa was founded in 2015, from a vision between the newly formed non-profit Creative Capital Arts Trust, and the Wellington City Council.

[15] In 2020, Gerry Paul took the role of Festival Director, while James assumed the position of CCAT Chief Executive and remained as a creative consultant.

[19] Some of the events of the 2015 festival were 100 Brazilian samba drummers hosted by Wellington Batucada and The Grand Opening tours of the Opera House produced by Barbarian Productions as well as stages with bands.

[21] In 2017, the CubaDupa festival was reported as having 250 events from Samba performances, opera, dance, steampunks, and virtual reality tours and 90 street food stalls.

Though The Cuba Precinct is a liquor ban zone and CubaDupa is family friendly event, alcohol is available to buy and drink during the festival in designated licensed areas.

"[34] They are also progressing toward being a Zero Waste event, and in 2023 are implementing measures such as being plastic bag free, having dedicated waste and recycling bin stations, requiring compostable packaging from all participating street food stalls, supplying reusable cups to all drink vendors, and collaborating with Native Sparkling to donate toward planting native trees.

smiling at the crowd a man with a tidy black mohawk and mirrored sunglasses is behind a microphone on stage
Tiki Taane in concert at CubaDupa 2017
Upper Cuba Street