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You wouldn't expect an Aucklandcentric event to be named after Moscow's most famous plaza.
But Red Square is where you'll want to be during next month's AK07 Festival.
Britomart's Gore St will be closed and renamed to host a nightly line-up of performers in the famous "Speigeltent", free gigs at sunset and nightly short film sessions.
The 87-year-old Spiegeltent - an ornately decorated pavilion built of wood, mirrors, canvas and leaded glass - is a travelling entertainment venue originally built in Belgium and a regular on the arts festival circuit.
Apparently, this "tent of dreams" is "unique, intoxicating, wild and mischievous, and you will never be the same again" once you've seen past its flaps.
Famously, it hosted Marlene Dietrich back in the 1930s and has been a mainstay at some of the world's biggest arts festivals, in Edinburgh, Melbourne, New York and Montreal.
The events being held in the tent include La Clique, the racy R18 burlesque cabaret show; actress Jennifer Ward Lealand's doing Falling In Love Again about Marlene Dietrich; and concerts by local musicians including Dave Dobbyn, Don McGlashan, Goldenhorse, and the Jubilation Gospel Choir.
In other events in Red Square, the AK07 Festival Club, a fully licensed venue, will host comedy and music. The comedy includes Australian act the Spaghetti Western Orchestra, who will make you grin as they play excerpts from the famous spaghetti westerns of the 60s and 70s, and fellow Aussie upstart Eddie Perfect brings his show, Drink Pepsi Bitch!, in which where he tackles everything from sex to globalisation.
Also at Festival Club will be a range of music including Maori singer Whirimako Black, jazzman Nathan "Squire For Hire" Haines, and the oddball match-up of Fred Avril (experimental grooves) and Barbara Morgenstern (micro-pop).
Meanwhile, in the surrounds of the Spiegeltent will be the Garden Bar and Cafe which will be open from 10am until 1am during the festival.
Plus, the daily Sunset sessions will have local artists, such as Dan Sperber (New Loungehead, Relaxomatic Project), Luke Hurley, DJs Cian and Andy Morton, the Mamaku Project and Tahuna Breaks, performing free.
