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A fun Friday fiesta, thanks for coming out to party everyone! Bit windy for some of the papercraft activities we’d planned, but So Samba our  band was sturdy and smokin’ hot & the paper flower crowns and dressup box were a hit. The biggest hit (literally! those kids went crazy 🤯 )Silvia’s fabulous piñata- thank you so much for making them!
Thanks too to all our sponsors, and everyone who dives in and lends a hand. The First Friday team has expanded this year to keep it rolling- so from me (Martine), Rebekah, and Tiff, Sandie, Emily and Silvia, thanks a bunch and see you in March!

Featherston First Fridays’ February Latin Fiesta

Featherston’s tiny Brazilian community knows how to rock a Carvale frock

a little bit of danc’

before it all went crazy! Beautiful pinata by Silvia Mendoza

and the crowd goes wild!

Fabulous band- So samba

This month, we presented “Rub & Dub” …!
Rub-  truly street art: the art of street rubbings, to uncover the hidden treasure that is our everyday environment.
&Dub- chilling out to music by the mighty dj Steppa D, host of Radioactive’s reggae show ‘Roots and Culture’. Dancehall, dub, reggae- the sound of NZ summer.

A beautiful summer evening

Rubbings were taken of the pavement, sculptures, all sorts, and assembled on a large baord, into a pattern. Watch out for this popping up later in the year!

All pics by Carly Webber. An artist engrossed in her work

Bunting made at December 2018 event

Steppa D’s sound system!

January’s Featherston First Friday. Pics by Carly Webber.

FFF brings you a festive First Friday Pre Parade Party! Friday 7 December, 6-8pm in the Squircle.

DJ Fuzzy spinning retro faves and pre Christmas parade fun for all- come along and decorate the Squircle, your bike, yourself.. for the Featherston Christmas parade the next day. Not in the parade? make a flag to wave in support of those who are..
NB due to the risk of allergic reactions there will be NO Christmas music

Lyttelton songwriting icon Delaney Davidson returned this November, in celebration of his superb latest album Shining Day.

The ever-questing tunesmith was joined for the shows by SJD (who also co wrote songs on the record), friend and collaborator Anita Clark ‘MOTTE’, and multi-talented percussionist Chris O’Connor (Phoenix Foundation). Davidson recently wrapped up a European tour alongside Marlon Williams, this band was equally inspiring and they played a blinder of a set with two encores. Proper rock n roll, in Featherston no less.

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FFF is proud to share with you some very special concerts in Featherston: ..as the dust settles on the Summer Season of Featherston First Fridays, and the nights grow longer, and winter is coming.. it’s time for less bad writing and more good music. Eb & Sparrow sold out in May, with the Kiwi Hall near capacity at 200+.

Pangaea is a fusion of the best of Western and Eastern styles, by three well established international musicians who reside in Delhi, India: Performing an exciting mixture of Indian Hindustani and Western classical music within contemporary original compositions, combining the classical guitar and voice with the complex rhythms, scales, and improvisation of Indian classical music to produce a unique style of fusion.

The trio comprises of two of India’s most exciting young Hindustani classical musicians, Saptak Sharma (Tabla) and Mayank Raina (Sitar and Flutes) and New Zealand musician and composer Mike Hogan (Guitar and vocals). All three have gained a high level of recognition individually in their respective fields.

See some clips from their brilliant concert in Featherston HERE

Final First Friday of the summer, and finally the weathergods were kind, and we were in the Squircle!!
‘Funk Force 5’ became ‘Jazz Force 5’ with a late lineup change due to a bereavement, thanks to Lauren for stepping in with Mike, Ayrton, Jacqui and Dan. Their smooth and groovy tunes were a great foil to the creative carnage of the chalk art..! This was great fun, with self portraits, spirals, spots and ultimately a free-for-all..Thanks to Martin and the Fire Service for helping cleanup afterwards.
Cheers to Erin and Tony who served up over 100 free sausages off their tiny BBQ, and Emily and Cheryl did a great job collecting community feedback about Featherston’s traffic issues: great idea thanks.
The Mini trains had a busy night after deciding to run the rides free- thanks team!!!
Thanks as ever to sponsors Creative Communities Scheme, Rotary, Featherston Community Board, Lee and KT- and all those who pitch in and help, and support Rebekah and myself with kind words and actions. xM

Eb & Sparrow: http://www.ebandsparrow.co.nz/

Sorry First Friday fans, we were so disappointed the atrocious weather meant we couldn’t bring you “ New Year, New Yeah!” on Friday 5 January. Thanks heaps to DJ Stepper D (aka Dave Heath) for last minute cancellation- we hope to have him in Featherston another time! A Wairarapa resident who plays drums for a few local bands, Dave also DJs for Wellington’s RadioActive FM, as s a regular host on their reggae show Roots&Culture.

Over the years Rebekah and I have had some most excellent times under summer sun listening to reggae and dub music, so we thought what better way to relax into the new year, than bring a picnic to the Squircle and listen to some chill reggae vibes…? Alas it was not to be…

We were also inviting everyone to join us to bring even more vibrancy to the Squircle, with a challenge to colour outside the lines… this is an idea too good not to do, so watch up for ”Funk N Roll” in March for the Chalk Challenge to return!

Celebrating the start of Summer together in the Squircle!

Featherston First Friday’s kicked off the season with a scorcher, with December’s Summer Starter held on the first of our long run of 30-degree+ days. We had a great band starring local legend Patrick Bleakley on bass, Little Bushman’s epic drummer Rick Cranson, and Aleister J. Campbell, “the most subversive guitarist in (Welling)town”

Imminent crisis was averted thanks to some quick help from the Mini Train crew: when drummer Rick Cranson arrived, not knowing the gig was outside he had brought a black wooden drumkit that wouldn’t last long in the hot sun. Luckily the train team lent us their shade gazebo and the show went on. Rick, Al and Paddy played two hours of jazzy bluesy numbers, with bit of pyschedelic rock thrown in to make sure we were all paying attention. We love the idea of local musicians and guests getting together to play something new and share it with our town, thanks Patrick for organising this!

Our other special guest for December was Mr Vinyl Burns (aka comedian Kim Potter). Vinyl was not allowed to bring his DJ booth onto the Squircle last year, so we were delighted that this year he was able to join us with his Christmas Cruiser, a decorated mobility scooter.

He sure was mobile! So if you saw a man with terrible teeth and an excellent tartan suit zooming around town on the 1st, and wondered what on earth he was doing, Christmas Carols blaring and that big grin- sorry and you’re welcome…

The creative activity from December was to decorate wooden bunting, and man there was some great works of art created: we’ll be bringing the bunting along to the next First Fridays, so do check it out.

As ever, massive thanks to our sponsors and supporters: Creative Communities Scheme, Rotary, Featherston Community Board, Lee Carter and A Nonymous, and Emily Greenberg. (and everyone who brought classic cars and bikes down to make the road edge a little safer for kids- cheers!)