The Cuba Street Carnival is a major street parade

Parade

A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...

 and creative celebration in Cuba Street, Wellington

Cuba Street, Wellington

Cuba Street is one of the most prominent streets in Wellington, New Zealand.-Location and origin:Named after an early settler ship to New Zealand, the Cuba, it is to the south of the CBD, but still in the inner city. Cuba Street was once the route of the Wellington trams...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

Founded by Chris Morley-Hall in 1998, the festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

 involves hundreds of artists, performers, and a weekend audience of over 125,000. The Carnival was inspired by the Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill Carnival

The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event which since 1964 has taken place on the streets of Notting Hill, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London, UK each August, over two days...

 and other raucous street parades and fair

Fair

A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...

s.

The event is now biennual, in order to avoid clashing with the NZ International Arts Festival, and includes street buskers

Busking

Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...

, a night street parade, and a street market.

Controversy has arisen in recent years, concerning the non-permission of certain groups to march in the night parade, most notably the Falun Gong

Falun Gong

Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...

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The 2009 Cuba Street Carnival was held on 21 February.

Notable parade performers include samba bands Wellington Batucada and AKSamba

AKSamba

AKSamba is a percussion group based in Auckland, New Zealand. While predominantly inspired by Brazilian rhythms, the group's music also incorporates international rhythms such as drum'n'bass, funk, disco and ska, as well as West African ones....

External links

• http://www.cubacarnival.org.nz/