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6 epic moments from Zeal at CubaDupa 2017

On most days of the year, Wellington’s Cuba Street is a low-key hub of coffee and creativity. But for one special weekend every year, it explodes into CubaDupa – a festival of music, art and culture.

For the second year running, the Zeal Event Box crew made the trek down from Auckland to link up with the Zeal Welly crew and together we were able to showcase some of the finest young talent in the city. 

The full Zeal line up for the day consisted of No Sleep After MidnightRight SeaterUnchained XLRetrospect (Rockquest regional final winners), MishapPeyton Morete, a special acoustic set from Retriever, and a surprise collab from HUZKY x Zams Music.

Here’s the run-down of six of our favourite moments from CubaDupa!

1. No Sleep After Midnight

These guys ripped through a set of originals and covers so massive, even noise control wanted a piece of the action! We also got some pretty brutal shots of what happens when bass strings meet fingers – but we figured those snaps might be a bit too rock’n’roll for our blog.

2. Peyton (all the way from Kapiti)

We borrowed some talent from the Zeal Kāpiti family, as Peyton Morete opened as an acoustic solo act. Having just won the Kāpiti College talent show, she blessed us all with her epic voice and tunes (check out a vid of her performance here).

3. Local legends Mishap 

Three young dudes from Wellington with a touring ethic that rivals most older bands, Mishap came off the back of some Auckland and Hamilton shows to jam some songs off their new EP Not Feeling This.

4. Debut performance from these dudes

At the last minute, two of our young people from Wellington afternoon hangs decided to jump up. They had never played live before in front of an audience, but you couldn’t tell from the polished performance they gave!

5. Unchained XL 

The rain was never going to stop Unchained XL (Auckland) from stealing the show. Bringing along a live drummer to help out, he busted through a set of absolute bangas.

6. HUZKY x Zams Music

DJ duo HUZKY finished off the night but not before being joined by hip-hop group Zams Music for an impromptu jam. It’s moments of creativity like these that we love to see!

For a full album of pics from the event, keep an eye out over the next few days on our Facebook page. If you’d like to support Zeal Wellington’s hunt for a new venue, all donations are hugely appreciated!