Cuba St Carnival

With no public city celebration for New Zealand’s capital, Chris Morley-Hall set out in 1998 to create one. The result was The Cuba Street Carnival. A celebration of the capital's arts and creative sectors. Although Changing its name in 2010 The event remains the largest public event in New Zealand attracting over 150,000 people annually.

As the founder of this festival, Chris  was responsible for maintaining the integrity of the event and representing the culture and vision of the participants, whilst meeting the needs of the community it serviced. This involved extensive and ongoing consultation and community building. In addition, Chris  was the key person for overseeing budgets, sponsorship, marketing, production, artistic direction and programming.

 By co-coordinating a large team and maintaining liaison and consultation with the community, Chris developed relations with: Central Government, Local Government, International Embassies, NZ Police, Transit NZ, Greater Wellington Regional Council, public transport, corporate sponsors, funding agencies, Media, local business and residents. Although changing  its name to Cuba Dupa (www.cubadupa.co.nz) in 2015, the event continues to grow and represent the myriad of communities that call  Aotearoa home.

In 2005 Chris raised the need for a more  sustainable structure for the organisation with the hope to provide a reliable resource for the emerging creative, arts and event industry in Wellington. In 2009 this came to fruition with the creation of the Creative Capital Arts Trust (www.ccat.org.nz). This organisation continues to operate overseeing  Cuba Dupa , the Fringe Festival  along with other creative projects.