Creating a day that made me HAPPY: attending the WoW Wearable Arts Awards

kiwideb (67)in #positivity • 8 years ago

A bit of a spin on Positivity Challenge #2

When I read the challenge for week 2, I thought I wasn’t going to enter anything. What makes me happiest is music, preferably accompanied by singing and dancing. My main outlet for that is the Wellington Community Choir, which I’ve already written about.

But while I was out today, I realised I had created a whole day that made me happy, so I want to share that with you, even if it’s not exactly what was intended for this challenge.

Four years in a row, I’ve attended the WoW Wearable Arts Award show with friends. It features entries from all round the world, but more than that, it is an amazing entertainment spectacle. We like to go to a Sunday afternoon show and have brunch first.

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First thing this morning, I found a text from one of the friends, asking if I wanted a ride. So no going on the bus. That made me happy and grateful.

I hadn’t seen her for ages, so catching up in the car made me happy.

We got a park just by the lifts in the carpark under the Events Centre. That made her happy, as she had a sore ankle, and didn’t have to walk very far.

We met the others for brunch at Dockside restaurant on the waterfront. Good food (medium rare ribeye steak with the trimmings, followed by chocolate mousse), a view of the water, good company, and the sun came out after a grey start to the day. What’s not to love about that!

I booked the tickets in February, so had long since forgotten where we were sitting. So it was a lovely surprise to discover we were right by the stage. Just far enough back to be at eye level with the action. We were all very happy!

I had forgotten to put a fresh battery in my camera, so had to use my phone. Luckily my Galaxy Note 3 has a pretty decent camera in it!

Then the pre show entertainment came on, and I’ll let them tell you about themselves.

The Wellington City Shake-Em-On-Downers are a hot new 6-piece band featuring trumpet, trombone, clarinet/saxophone/retro-style vocals, drums, accordion and double bass. We play a mix of New Orleans/Chicago traditional jazz, early swing and popular show tunes with an emphasis on dancing and general light-hearted fun.

The first thing that made me happy was the fabulous dress the lead vocalist was wearing. It was cobalt blue (one of my favourite colours), it was sparkly, and it ticked all the boxes. Though it does look more purple in the photo below.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t “dance like nobody’s watching” when you’re sitting down. You absolutely can and I’ll prove it any time you want. My happiness cup was starting to run over by now.

The band departed, the stage went dark, the soundtrack started with birdsong. There was the sound of lightening and the stage lit up for a split second. Oh my god, was that a large tiger lying on a rock? Another lightening flash. Yes, yes, it was a tiger. Full light revealed a very lifelike, life sized animatronic tiger. It spoke, and later sang, with a voice that turned out to be Jermaine Clement. Some of you might remember him from the New Zealand comedy singing duo Flight of the Conchords.

The whole show was spectacular – the lighting, the staging, the dancing, and of course the costumes. The categories were:

 Bizarre Bra
 Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand)
 Avant Garde
 Costume & Film (baroque / rococo)
 Open
 Creative Excellence (cubism, surrealism, expressionism)

This was the winner of the Bizarre Bra section (with dancers and the large rock in the background):

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As well as winners in each of these categories, winners were selected for first time entrants, students and different regions. The winners came from New Zealand, Australia, UK, USA, China and India.

This was the winner of the WOW Factor award, and one of my favourites:

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This was this year’s supreme winner, and also won the Avant Garde section:

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This costume was one of my favourites from a previous year:

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The show is one of the highlights of the year, both for Wellington and many people personally. I was in Vegas earlier this year and saw four shows there, so can attest that this show is world class.

After a superb afternoon, I was excited to come home and tell you all about it. How was your Sunday afternoon?

Although you can’t see the show, you can see some of the previous costumes. Iif you’re going to be in Seattle between now and January 3rd 2017, there is an exhibition at the EMP Museum. Or if you’ll be in Salem between 18 February and 11 June 2017, head on over to the Peabody Essex Museum.