Auckland's Indigenous Music Culture Opportunity

Accompanied my daughter to the Lorde concert at Silo Park last night. Very relaxing and relaxed venue....

Went and listened to Greg Clark, Auckland Conversations beforehand.  He was talking about "business friendly cities..." competition between cities for investment... sort of thing.... but he did make some interesting comments about Auckland....

Lots of places at Silo Park to sit and chat, get something to eat.... We had a beer and a litre of wedges at Jack Tars on North Wharf. So we didn't need anything more.

The startup acts were underway at the stage, but a lot of the crowd just enjoyed sitting and chatting. It was a glorious evening.

The place looks great.

Plenty of food choices....

The six pack silos make a great background...

Greg Clark told us that people in a lot of other cities don't even know that Auckland is a city. he started his chat by saying he reckoned Auckland needed to discover its own authentic, indigenous, identity, and that - once he'd dealt with the whole thing about being business friendly - he'd come back with a couple of suggestions for Auckland....

The grittiness of Wynyard Quarter is the background of most of the pictures...it's good... it's what the plans have been calling for....

There is the flash of ASB in the background here....

Place is full of people out for a good night...

And again...

Managed to squeeze in a bit of silo, harbour bridge and the James Bond boat being maintained. Seagulls enjoyed the scraps...

Back to Greg Clark.  He told us that Auckland rated high for quality of life, outstanding natural environment, highly effective governance institutions. BUT that Auckland has "patchy global appeal", ranks weak in "presence" and is weak in "liveliness". In fact he used the word "anonymous" to describe Auckland. He advised that Auckland needed to find its DNA, to expose its soul, to discover its inbuilt pattern, and work with that - not against it.....

Gradually the crowd gathers round the stage. Lorde was due at 9:00 but kept us waiting for 20 minutes or so. Vomiting apparently.  Standing room only....

Very good natured though...

And then with a bang we were into it. An extraordinary 17 year old in her school shoes....

Blue light sticks were free. There was a cunning plan for them to all get lit up for Royals, but the crowd couldn't wait....

Here's how NZ Herald reported the concert. 

"....A Laneway make-up show on a Wednesday night in little old Auckland must feel like a blip when more than 28 million people watched you perform at the Grammys.
But Lorde, who had only walked off the plane from Los Angeles the morning of the show, had plenty of surprises in store for the nearly sold out crowd of 10,000 at Auckland's Silo Park...."

It was fun - though for me - wanted to hear her singing more than I needed to feel the bass line - but then I'm an oldie...

And everyone went wild with the blue light sticks. (Click on the pic to see it enlarged....)

Quite a splash.....

Greg Clark came back to his theme at the end of his talk. What IS Auckland. Is it volcanoes, islands, boats and water?  Is it about openness, diversity, human relations?  Or how about the nexus between sport, food, nutition and health...?

But he ended by suggesting this:  Your indigenous population is Maori, that is what really strikes me. Think about  what Martin Luther King means in and to Atlanta...   The new constitution in South Africa and how this is a big thing now to and for Johanesburg....  Auckland's "offer" can be the way it rebuilds its relationships with its indigenous people...."

This is all from Greg Clark.....

And so here we all are coming back across Te Whero bridge from Silo Park. Happy throng. Buzzing with it all. Some of us headed for the Devonport Ferry, some for bus, some to Britomart.  I know the feeling is similar when there's a concert at Vector Arena. 
Remember how Auckland was during the Rugby World Cup - when Samoa and Tonga had their teams here - when Auckland built - temporarily - a relationship with its polynesian population? Scroll through this posting and remember.

Maybe Auckland's buzz can be built around music. Sort of New Orleans of the South Pacific. There sure seems to be a lot of good stuff coming out of schools and music clubs and groups across the region. How about bringing NZ's Got Talent as well into Auckland Central. This expression does not need to be confined to TV and internet ITunes. Through music, performance, rehearsal spaces, performance places, it can become part of Auckland's urban night life - and rebuild that relationship within and between peoples.