First Thursdays – 1960s Edition

Overview

Bouffant beehives, billowing bellbottoms and echoes of Woodstock – it’s all coming to K Road on 1 May as the street celebrates its late night art event First Thursdays – the 1960’s Edition. All the colour and attitude of this swinging decade will be reverberating throughout the more than 30 events taking place in 20-plus locations the length of Auckland’s famous strip.

Those with a fetish for dress ups will revel in the chance to be styled by a team of vintage specialists in St Kevin’s Arcade offering free beehive hairdos and flower power face painting, while a best-dressed competition will see one 1960’s pretender walk away with a $100 voucher to spend at arcade old-timer Vixen Vintage. If you've got it, flaunt it because Kingsize Studios, in conjunction with the New Zealand Fashion Museum, will be photographing New Zealand-made 1960’s couture for posterity at number 179 K Road.

Keep an eye out for roving go-go dancer Miss La Vida, have your dress-up get-up painted by street portrait artists for $10 and dance the night away to the sounds of soul and R & B emanating from 50-year-old vinyl at Verona. The NZ Film Archive will be reminiscing with showings of footage of outdoor festivals from the period while an East St marketing company will make an outside 1960’s lounge available for cinema viewings.

In the former Khuja Lounge, at the top of Queen St, Maori Stylez will host a Maori/1960’s fashion parade in-house while Cross St Arcade at 214 K Road will undergo its usual transformation into a bustling art and craft market.

Now into its fifth year, First Thursdays attracts a crowd of around 8,000 people –a crowd organiser Laura Forest hopes will join with retailers, café owners, performers and musicians in recreating the spirit of an era close to K Road’s own revolutionary heart. “I’m looking forward to the public getting more involved this time, dressing up in ‘60’s vintage, having their hair back-combed, having a go-go lesson and dancing in Ironbank courtyard afterwards,” says Laura. Dig out your gladdest 60s rags and join the party.

Get the full programme here.