Cuba Street Carnival, 2009

A Laser-Painted building Same building, different laser effect The crowds were 5 and 6 deep along the parade route At times it felt the City was on the move! The Meridian Energy Float ... ... which looked lovely ... ... but had a fellow inside it The Meridian Energy Float, spreading litter all over the street A Samba band A Circus performer doing her 'hoop' routine This group's truck broke down, so they were shunted out of the Parade route - but at least they had a good view of the rst! One of the 'fantastical' floats Batucada, with the fish hats Batucada were fantastic, as usual A Samba band Some of the floats were very sizable and provided an exotic setting for the performers while others were just strange others were charming in their simplicity I'm not sure what this was about, but it was brilliantly coloured and the dancers looked just as great This was an extraordinarily well-articulated skeleton costume I think this bus had been decorated especially, but it might have just been tagged! A Chinese Dragon - it wouldn't be a parade without one! A samba band Not quite sure why they were included, but, hey, who cares? Floats fantastical or fantabulous! and florid even other-worldly! There were lots of fireworks which are always a hit! Fireworks More Fireworks More Fireworks That's Dart Vader in the foreqround, and a light-sabre effect I think this was the Cook Islands community This group were middle eastern belly dancers I was intrigued by this - it's being driven by the woman in the front of the float Belly dancers galore! One group tried to bring an element of classical style to proceedings and looked stunning