ABSTRACT
Watching the dynamic and highly energetic movements of dancers on stage outside the Town Hall on 24 October 2005 in central Wellington, New Zealand, as part of the annual Diwali celebrations (Hindu New Year; known as the ‘Festival of Lights’*also celebrated by Jains and Sikhs), I was particularly moved, first, by the public visibility of this celebration of a religious festival and, second, by the diversity of its soundscape. Attracting an estimated 35,000 people in and around several performance sites, it was clearly a celebration that had dance, music and food as its main focus. 1 The performers on the main open-air stage were simulating to pre-recorded music the popular movements of Bollywood (India’s dominant film industry). 2 Several rooms and corridors in the Town Hall were full of local stall-holders selling their brand of cuisine from South Asia; the general public, who seemed particularly representative of the contemporary multicultural make-up of New Zealand (i.e. South Asians and non-South Asians alike), flocked to the stalls in the late afternoon to early evening to purchase a take-out meal; and the entire event was underpinned by a variety of performances from local and international artists performing traditional and contemporary South Asian musics. 3 The main stage in the Town Hall presented performances by local community groups; a smaller hall in the same building focused entirely on India’s classical traditions; and the outside stage in Civic Square was reserved for Bollywood dancing and other more popular styles of music and dance. It was an event that had, it seemed, transformed tradition and had public display and performance (broadly defined) at its core.
