Free summer concerts across Auckland city

Top New Zealand and local musicians are tuning up for Auckland City’s free Music in Parks summer concert series, kicking off in January 2005.

For three months the Auckland City Music in Parks series will host 39 free performances in parks all over the city, the suburbs and on Waiheke and Great Barrier islands.

The free concerts provide something to suit every taste with a wide variety of musical styles including jazz, classical, blues, soul, contemporary rock and pop, Latin and world music.

The Auckland Domain band rotunda opens the season with the Grand Central Band on 2 January and closes it with The Brothers Earp on 20 March.

The golden sounds of the hugely popular Goldenhorse, ably supported by members of the Auckland Philharmonia, can be heard at Tahaki Reserve in Mt Eden on 29 January during the Solid Gold Saturday concerts which are held in January, February and March. These three concerts are supported by The Endeavour Charitable Trust.

There couldn’t be a festival of music in Auckland without the Latin sounds of Kantuta who are playing at the Tahaki Reserve in Mt Eden on Saturday 26 February so bring your dancing shoes for a free salsa dance lesson, along with your picnic basket.

For those who like their music harder and faster, the Dancing in the Street series is back in January, February and March. Headline dance acts including Concord Dawn, Havoc, the Misfits of Science, Minuit, and Soane are among others who will perform to massive street parties in closed-to-traffic Lorne Street, behind the St James Theatre.

A line up of dance music maestros including Pitch Black and Concord Dawn will be partying hard in the Dancing in the Square concert in Aotea Square on Friday 4 March.

Waiheke and Great Barrier Islands get their share of the sounds with performances at Onetangi Sports Park and the Claris Sportsclub Grounds, while Pt England Reserve in Glen Innes gets a Rock the Park concert.

Even the Block gets to rock with the Midge Marsden Band performing a blistering set in the Blues@Blockhouse Bay concert at Blockhouse Bay Beach Reserve on Friday 4 March 6pm until 9.30pm.

Jazz and classical music will be on the menu every Sunday at the Auckland Domain band rotunda, with the Montana Jazz at the Rotunda series and the Drake International Concert Series. The Montana Jazz at the Rotunda includes acts such as the Julie Mason Quintet, the Grant Winterburn Experience and the Phil Broadhurst Quintet. The Drake International Concert Series includes performances by Vivo, the Greater Auckland Chorus, City of Sails Chorus and Neumegen and Sanders.

Auckland City Music in Parks has plenty of music and plenty of space to enjoy it in this summer, so grab some food and some friends and head out to one of the city’s beautiful parks to enjoy some first class music. Check www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/mips for more details.

These concerts are just some of more than 60 free events provided by Auckland City, in association with Radioworks, as part of the Ak@Play summer events programme.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>