Welcome to Auckland’s original ‘Municipal Destructor’. Everyone, like me, know it as Victoria Park Market – a super popular open air market through the 80's to 2000's – a great place to buy your crystals and tie-dies etc! I've always known that it was originally the city rubbish dump – when the city was waaaay smaller). There is more to the story, of course. It was originally created in reaction to a bubonic plague scare in Sydney. For sanitary reasons it was built to burn Auckland’s rubbish and waste while using the heat generated to provide electricity to power the city. Sounds pretty clever eh, and I guess we were plague free. However, we must have been breathing some seriously toxic smoke fumes! That 38 metre tall chimney must have helped a little but don't forget all the horse manure and night carts, they were definitely smellier times. The municipal destructor is now a gentrified place that's home to restaurants and businesses, like the superb Milenta restau...
Sketching amongst the crowd, it seems I've become proficient at sketching while moving with the music while people bump into my sketchbook.
It was hard not to notice lead singer Ch!’s voice. Wow! Supported by an expert band including @andrewisdale and @thabanigapara. Thabani's afro-jazz saxophone style at times reminded me of African favourites Manu Dibango and Fela Kuti.
It wasn’t the nicest of days, cold and windswept, but the music, colourful outfits and food helped warm things up. Unfortunately we lost many of our Urban Sketchers Auckland group in the crowd today — it was difficult to catch up with everyone!
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