Botanical Gardens with a friend today, we stumbled on a tulip festival,
replete with Dutch food, music, windmills, dancers and - of course -
plenty of tulips. The most striking thing of all was the entirely
casual way in which the people running the event and those attending it
went about it. There were families, other groups with picnics, people
just sitting, dads dancing with children, a single stall selling Dutch
bakery products, another (under a small pergola) with 'rookwurst'.
None of it overdone or commercial in any way. No local 'Buxxx FM'
radio station, or people with nowhere accents spruiking and carrying on
in falsely excited voices. Nothing 'in your face'.
A sharp contrast to the football match last night between Wellington
Phoenix and Adelaide. There were the 'Black Thunder' recreational
vehicles spewing awful, bland music, Hyundai cars, more loud music, and
commercial hype. Rather oddly though, even here at Westpac Stadium,
the 12,000-odd crowd didn't have to gawk at banner ads around the edge
of the ground. Someone in the venue marketing hadn't got around to
selling the space - and nobody cared. The ads that were there (and I
have to assume that there were ads on the small 3 sided barriers place
on the grass) were not visible from the seats we took. In fact, they
were not on view to most of the crowd - the far side probably only
having a few hundred people scattered around. Maybe the NZD28.00 alone
covers the cost of the match - without also having to collect from many
demanding sponsors. There was a local DJ 'celebrity' who commentated
on a bizarre piece of half-time entertainment. He had 3 pairs of what
appeared to be mature adults doing a medley 3-legged, wheelbarrow and
leap frog race. It was like being at the local Primary School picnic.
The crowd didn't give a damn. Someone told me this same guy had
invited a large part of the crowd at a previous event to get involved
in a dialogue and nobody wanted to play. It's a message that could
only be delivered in Wellington. Silence and indifference saying
loudly: 'bugger off - we came to watch football - you wanker'.
I like Wellington more and more every week. Shame this is my last
weekend. Thanks for getting me out of the flat.
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