The Chronicle caught up with Tonya McNamee to find out more about how the annual Kate Bush event, The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, was recently celebrated in Raglan.
Tell us about the Wuthering heights tribute day around the world?
The first version of the ‘Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever’ took place in 2013 as a performance art work at the Shambush festival, in England. Now an annual event it happens in cities all around the world. The day is in celebration of Kate Bush’s 1978 song Wuthering Heights. It is scheduled on a date close to Kate’s birthday (which is also Emily Brontë’ birthday!) – it is an inclusive day for people to get together, pop on a red dress and dance in honour of Kate and her iconic Wuthering Heights music video.
What happened in Raglan and who got involved?
As this was the first one, it was pretty small. Over the last few weeks we’ve been doing lounge room practices, just 2, then 3, then 4 of us. We decided to dance at 2 locations on the day, first on the Rangitahi Peninsula, and the second spot at the Wainui Reserve lookout.
By the day of the event we had 6 ‘Kates’, a small audience, and a fabulous camera person.
It was joyful to watch you all perform. How do people watch the video?
It really was so fun. We have the two performances posted now on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@Raglan_MostWutheringHeig-fr4yz/videos
What do you hope to achieve next year by involving The Karioi Project ?
We thought how great it would be to build this up in the community as an annual event, and an ideal opportunity to fundraise for a local group that reflects the wild and windy theme of the song – The Karioi Project with their focus on the maunga, Karioi, and surrounding coastline, wetlands and beaches, seemed to be the obvious choice.
How do people get in touch ?
Join the Facebook group, “Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever – Raglan”, or email via raglan.tmwhde@gmail.com
