Wuthering the storm: flash mob goes ahead
A crowd of bright red dresses swarmed Hamilton Gardens last Sunday in an attention-grabbing flash mob.
Members of the flash mob copy the dance moves from Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights music video. Video by Kai Creighton
After being postponed by a week, Hamilton has finally enjoyed its first Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever.
Despite the spotty weather, approximately fifty Kate Bush fans from Hamilton and nearby towns came turned out in red to dance to her debut single last Sunday, August 16.
The group ranged in age from preteen to pensioners, with both male and female dancers donning the iconic red dress.
Participants in the flash mob wore red dresses in imitation of Kate Bush’s iconic music video. Photo supplied.
Many of the event organisers were from the Hamilton based Strumbles ukulele group, who performed multiple Kate Bush covers as the flash mob dispersed. The ukulele group Blister Sisters from Raglan also made an appearance to play some covers.
One of the organisers from this group was Anna Fairley, who’d been a fan of Kate Bush ever since she was a young child. Fairley said she would see her performing on TV and became captivated
Fairley’s sister, Bethwyn Rakotoniaina said listening to the music was also part of their childhood, “when we were five and ten, used to put on our record of Kate Bush and dance around the lounge every weekend. That would be 45 years ago.”
Tangi Moana (left) led the dancing. Long-time Kate Bush fan, Anna Fairley (right) proposed the event. Photo by Kai Creighton.
Fairley was so captivated that around 1980, she became one of the first New Zealanders to join the global Kate Bush fan club. She would exchange letters with pen pals across the world discussing the singer, and be sent photographs.
Fairley said promotional images surrounding the event came from magazines the fanclub sent out, which she retrieved from her attic and scanned in preparation for the celebration.
Fairley raised the idea of a Hamilton version of The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever to the Strumbles group after attending the event in Melbourne, and then Raglan last year. After that, she said, the idea had legs of its own, and everyone was excited to make it happen.
