Sunday Sessions, if done right, are a reminder that we Aucklanders do live in a world-class city with a partying scene others envy, writes Lee Suckling. Photo / Getty Images
Sunday Sessions, if done right, are a reminder that we Aucklanders do live in a world-class city with a partying scene others envy, writes Lee Suckling. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
Over in Sydney it’s called a Sunday Session. In the US, it’s called Sunday Funday. Here in New Zealand, having a low-key rosé afternoon with 100 of your coolest new friends is called … well, nothing. Culturally, we don’t do that here.
But we should. The Sunday Session is epic.
Picture this. It’s 23C and the sun is glistening across the Hauraki Gulf. The hour is 4pm and your hangover from Saturday night is mostly gone.
You’re at a bar with a great view – maybe it’s a fancy rooftop spot like QT, Hotel So, or Palmer Bar.
There’s a DJ front and centre playing chilled tropical and progressive house. The girls are wearing their Sunday best: cute colourful dresses that flow when they dance. The boys are in fitted short-sleeve shorts and designer sunglasses.
And everyone has work tomorrow, but nobody really cares. This place is a vibe.
What makes a Sunday Session so fun? It’s the naughty factor. It feels illicit to be drinking on a Sunday; you want to “be good” and do your meal prep and home chores for the upcoming week.
But your friends want to party, and you’ll get FOMO if you don’t join them.
Sunday afternoons, done right, can be the best part of the weekend. I even prefer going out on a Sunday (and being home by 8pm!) than trolling K Rd on a Saturday night.
It’s daylight, you’re not going to screw up your normal sleep schedule, and it makes the weekend last that much longer.
Sure, Monday mornings hurt a little bit after a Sunday Session. But don’t Mondays always hurt? They’re called Sunday Scaries for a reason, but partying until the sun goes down is the perfect antidote to that weekly fear of meetings that could have been emails.
Such a session allows you to suspend your reality for a few more hours and remember that life – especially in summer – is so much more than just your 9-5.
The term Sunday Funday probably comes from the 1986 song Manic Monday by The Bangles. “It’s just another manic Monday… I wish it was Sunday … ‘Cause that’s my fun day … My ‘I don’t have to run’ day …”
I think “Sunday Session”, given its Antipodean roots (it’s an Aussie term), is a better term for partying on a Sunday afternoon, but they’re entirely interchangeable.
The activity is more important than the label, and while some types of Sunday Sessions did exist in New Zealand before Covid, they haven’t gained much traction yet in our post-pandemic lives.
Let’s change that. Auckland, being a beautiful harbourside city with great weather and countless venues appropriate for Sunday Sessions, is the ideal place to bring this culture into New Zealand life.
We’ve got the critical mass of people looking for a good time. The great bars that need our patronage to survive. And after being stuck in our homes for a lot of last summer, the 2022-23 season is begging us to come out and play.
I’ve been to two Sunday Sessions this season so far, both hosted by Meraki at Okahu, that waterside venue near Kelly Tarlton’s you’d normally associate with weddings.
Put together by a Brazilian event planner and an Italian DJ, they brought a mood to Auckland I’ve been desperately seeking (think Ibiza, Aperol, and elegance). Here’s hoping other event planners and venues around our city follow suit as the temperatures heat up.
However, hosting a Sunday Session requires more effort than a regular hospo experience.
Crucially, you need a good DJ. Not someone who just plugs in their phone and puts on a playlist. The kind of real artist that knows how to read the room and bring the crowd up song-by-song.
You know that scene in the (otherwise terrible) Zac Efron movie We Are Your Friends where Efron, playing a DJ, waxes poetic about 128 beats per minute being the optimal experience to get you out of your head, and into your body?
That kind of attitude is what’s required on a dancefloor for a Sunday Session.
Further, you need drink specials. A happy hour that goes on for three, even. Whether it’s a themed cocktail at a discount or 2-4-1 house wines, you need a money-saving promotion to get people through your door.
Obviously, you need good weather too – but we’ve got that covered in Tāmaki Makaurau between November and March.
You also need a mixed crowd of your city’s young and stylish, and it’s got to be both queer-friendly and a safe space for women where they won’t get pounced on by men. There’s no room for predators or angry and abusive drunks.
Sunday Sessions are, and must remain, a classy affair.
And my advice to you, if you want to attend any Sunday Sessions you might encounter this summer? Do all your normal Sunday chores before you go. Get your laundry and your workout done early. Line your work clothes out for Monday morning. Make yourself a dinner you can heat up easily after six drinks. Then go out with your favourite girls or boys, and have a good time.
Sunday Sessions are epic, and we Kiwis need them in our lives. There’s a right way to do them, and if managed accordingly, they’re a reminder that we Aucklanders do live in a world-class city with a partying scene others envy.
