But: have at you Sir – I’ll take thee on. “Is rugby not our iconic sport?” Yes, yes, quite, but I’ll have you know that we have no truck with that word iconic here. Much over-worked phrase. And besides, we’re all on about soccer at the moment.

Yes indeed, the entire world, if they have heard of us, know us as the country that is long, green, uninhabited, and where they play rugby with sheep. The truth is more like that we all live in 3 cities, the river is polluted due to all the bloody cows straining their udders out to make cheese and dodgy milk products (literally, working their teats off), the south island is empty apart from a handful of Australian and Japanese snowboarders, we’ve eaten all the sheep, and yes, we play rugby, endlessly.

Wouldn’t it be nice, if instead of reinforcing their stereotypes about the rugby (sorry Mike, but it’s true), that we are known for having a damn good Latin dancing party as well? All hail Martin Wilson then, according to Barry. See you there indeed.

“Carnival Collective chairman Nick Simcock said the main reason for the cancellation was the difficult economic environment. Sponsors had been directing their money toward the Rugby World Cup.
“No-one’s more acutely disappointed than us. It was a very difficult decision.”
The council had been supportive, and he was confident it would have provided funding if the festival had been held next year.
The cancellation has been called a “huge loss for Wellington” by dance troupe Real Hot Bitches and a “stink buzz” by Fat Freddy’s Drop.”

Possibly the only good thing to come out of this mess is a new phrase for me : stink buzz. I like it. Very… feeling.

Sigh. The crux of the matter is, as Hayden points out, that Morley Hall has asked for more money than he got before. And obviously, with the dire financial situation we’re all in, there aren’t many other backers out there with deep pockets.

However: if, say, there wasn’t a Rugby World Cup on, and there was a Cuba Carnival planned, would the Council still can the Carni because of just a shortfall of 300k ? I think probably not…. And if you had a choice between a sculpture that would be there for 150 years, and a Carni for a weekend, would you chose the short term fun over the long term “artistic” objet d’arte ? Hmmmmm…… And if you wanted to spend 100k on a large tent in a “cup village”, then would you also need to spend 11million on a whare waka to be used as a rugby cup drinking centre as well?

Cuba Street Carnival – clarification
Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast has denied as “absolutely untrue” reports that the 2011 Cuba St Carnival has been cancelled because the Council is not committed to funding it and is spending money on the Rugby World Cup instead.
The Council has been working with the Cuba Street Carnival and Fringe Arts trusts since last year on forming a new trust focused on delivering and developing events for emerging artists in Wellington.
Mayor Prendergast says the Council committed $75,000 toward helping establish the trust and has not received any formal funding request for the 2011 Cuba St Carnival.
“As far as the Council is concerned we are still working with the trust and a report detailing the steps to establish it is being finalised at the moment.
“We have always been supportive of the Cuba St Carnival and contributed approximately $300,000 last year. The suggested figure of $500,000 was taken out of context and included a much wider range of events that the Council and Cuba St Carnival Collective Trust had been discussing.
“The Rugby World Cup has been budgeted completely separately from community events and major events. It is absolutely not drawing Council funding from any other events in the city.”
Nick Simcock, Chair of the Cuba St Carnival Collective, says a decision was made at the last board meeting that is was not feasible for the new trust to run an event of the Cuba Carnival’s scale in its first year of operation.
“We decided the focus should be on identifying appropriate trustees, building relationships with stakeholders and engaging appropriately qualified staff instead.
“We think it is in the best interest of Wellington City, the performers and the 150,000 carnival attendees for us to plan for a successful carnival in the longer term rather than compromise its authenticity because we have committed to an unrealistic timeframe in a very difficult financial environment.”
The steering group for the new trust, made up of representatives from the Carnival and Fringe Trusts, is working with other creative interests, including Wellington City Council, on a long-term strategy to retain and build Wellington’s status as New Zealand’s leading centre for arts events and emerging artists.