Boston-based bisexual punk-cabaret artist Amanda Palmer has joined the busy line-up of entertainers confirmed for Auckland's Aroha Festival in March. Aroha: Amanda Palmer Palmer is a performer, director, composer and musician best known for her role as front woman and keyboardist for internationally acclaimed punk-cabaret band The Dresden Dolls. She's now scheduled for a show at Auckland's Kings Arms Tavern on Wednesday 17 March, after concerts in Wellington and Christchurch in the same week. Spread across nine days from Friday 12 March, the Aroha Festival will feature over thirty unique music, dance, cabaret, visual art, performance art, drag, films, workshops, discussions, community events and parties, all centred around K' Road - the cultural heart of LGBT Auckland. The festival's opening event will be the premiere performance of Mika's new Tribal Pop Opera, Pō | Beautiful Darkness on the Aotea Centre main-stage. Performances by internationally acclaimed Japanese dancer Shakti, Trans-Tasman drag-tastic songstress Miz Ima Starr, Melbourne-based singer Kerryn Fields and local songstresses Jan Hellriegel and Charlotte Yates will also be on stage during the busy Aroha Festival week. The festival will climax on Saturday 20 March with Aroha Day in Beresford Square: "It'll be an action-packed, celebrity-encrusted, community celebration with live music, a delicious menu of local performers, plus all the festival stars – followed by the seductive all-night dance party, AROHA After Dark," promises Mika. A music video by Amanda Palmer appears below.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Saturday, 30th January 2010 - 10:13pm