Hundreds attend Bay Batucada 10-year anniversary celebration

Bay Batucada celebrating their 10th anniversary with a festival in the Sound Shell. Photo / Connull Lang

After two years of planning, the Bay Batucada samba drumming group pulled off one of their best performances yet as they celebrated the group’s 10-year anniversary with a small festival.

Back in 2014 two locals Rinie Copplemans and Murray Tonks wanted to join in on the New Zealand batucada movement and bring the rhythm and beat of the samba drums to Hawke’s Bay.

The catchy samba style rhythms and African-influenced style of drumming originated in Brazil, becoming popular there and elsewhere in South America, and is now often seen in parades and at festivals in Hawke’s Bay as Bay Batucada take their music to the masses.

Over the weekend, to commemorate the group turning 10, other batucada groups from across the country joined Bay Batucada at the Bay Bloco festival staged at Napier’s Sound Shell.

The Sound Shell was alive with music and samba over the weekend to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Bay Batucada. Photo / Connull Lang

Event organiser and Bay Batucada member Jared Sherriff said the group is “still buzzing after the event, even now just how great it was and the energy we got from the crowd and the other performers was great”.

Sherriff added “everyone was really positive, there were lots of compliments from members of the public. Often with drum groups making a big loud racket you don’t get that.”

Hawke’s Bay put on some nice weather for the Bay Batucada celebrations and more than 150 performers attended the festival, with a couple of hundred members of the public stopping to watch and dance along.

When asked what it felt like for Bay Batucada to be 10 years along, Sherriff said, “It’s kind of surreal really, I wasn’t there at the beginning but when our two founding members Murray [Tonks] and Rinie [Copplemans] started I don’t think they ever saw it lasting 10 years, as community music can be a bit fickle like that with people coming and going.”

Bay Batucada has been bringing batucada to the Bay for 10 years. Photo / Connull Lang

He added, “We have a really good group of people and they all pitched in for the event. Something that is very special about the group is we have a sense of looking after each other and caring about each other.”

The 10-year celebration went better than Sherriff could have hoped, and people are already asking when the next festival will be.

While he said people can follow the Bay Batucada Facebook page for any upcoming events, he isn’t sure when the next big batucada event will be for Hawke’s Bay.

For more information about Bay Batucada follow the group on Facebook or check out the website.