Hamilton Arts Festival 2024: Captain Festus McBoyle's Travellin' Variety Show had little ones ready to boogie and cackle at the potty humour. Photo / Abby Dalgety
What: Captain Festus McBoyle’s Travellin’ Variety Show, performance
When: Sunday, February 25
Where: Hamilton Arts Festival- Toi Ora ki Kirikiriroa
Reviewed by Abby Dalgety
Captain Festus and his motley crew of semi-toothed pirates started strong with their comedic youthful rock and roll at the Hamilton Arts Festival – Toi Ora ki Kirikiriroa.
The tongue-in-cheek performance, although aimed at a younger audience, had enough adult humour to keep the older generations chuckling whilst going over the little one’s heads.
With catchy songs that had a good mix of ludicrousness and almost punk rock, the younger members of the audience were encouraged to dance near the front of the stage.
My 7-year-old daughter was the perfect age to take along to the performance, ready to boogie and cackle at the potty humour. A perfect show for children of all ages to have their first taste of live music.
I felt there was potentially too much audience participation required, which at times felt overdone. There were a few grandparents in the crowd hoping to entertain their young ones without the need to get down on their knees and pretend to be a zombie.
However, when some of the audience participation failed to land, there was plenty of laughs for the younger audience.
My favourite part of the show was discovering the sub-culture of people known as pirate enthusiasts or pirate adults.
There were a handful of pirate enthusiast groups in attendance, head to toe in the most elaborate pirate costumes I have seen outside of Halloween.
These pirate fans find any pirate-related activity to attend in full pirate regalia. Rather than sourcing a costume from their local Look Sharp, these pirate fans looked like extras that had just stepped out of shooting the next Pirates of the Caribbean.
I couldn’t help but do some people watching through the performance, and marvel at how much fun it is to relive our carefree childhood years. The groups of adult pirates looked like they had a ball, aye matey they did.
Abby Dalgety is a tutor at the School of Media Arts at Wintec Te Pūkenga in Hamilton.
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